No more Teachings of the Presidents of the Church!

larryco_ says:

I don’t think much is changing, since the past manuals have never really been “Teachings Of” publications. In traditional publications, such as (hypothetically) The Teachings of Aristotle or The Teachings of Winston Churchill, the compiler/editor will include those writings and ideas that are most individually unique to the subject. The purpose of this is to show how and why this individual’s thoughts set him or her apart.

The purpose of the Church Correlation Committee is completely the opposite; their goal has been to show how the doctrines of the Church have remained the same from the beginning and their method of doing this has been to use – to some extent – the same basic chapter headings year after year and cherry-pick quotes from the presidents of the Church that fit the topic. You never really see how distinctive Brigham Young or other presidents thought.

This is neither bad nor good, it’s just the approach they choose. It’s not any different from General Conference, where the topics stay basically the same from 6 mo. to 6 mo. Whereas, the beginning of the 20th Century showed a church leadership – particularly with GA’s like Talmage, Widtsoe, and Roberts – expanding members understanding in a wide area of gospel subjects; the 21st Century continues the trend of limiting the topics to a few dozen and reinforcing them through repetition. I’m sure the forthcoming manuals will continue along this line.