Mormon Publications: 19th Century - Compendium of the faith and doctrines of the Church

Richards, Franklin Dewey. A compendium of the faith and doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Compiled from the Bible; and also from the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and other publications of the church. With an appendix. By Franklin D. Richards, one of the Twelve Apostles of said church. Liverpool, Published by Orson Pratt, 42, Islington. London, L.D.S. Book Depot, 35 Jewin Street, City, 1857.

viii, 243 p. 16 cm.

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Franklin D. Richards’ Compendium approached the ultimate step in the standardization of Mormon theology. It is a compilation of references supporting the various LDS doctrines. Arranged under forty-seven doctrinal headings, it reprints passages bearing on each of these topics from the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Journal of Discourses, Pearl of Great Price, and the “History of Joseph Smith,” which was then being published serially in the Deseret News and Millennial Star. In addition, it includes references to The Seer, Orson Pratt’s two series of pamphlets, Spencer’s Letters, Key to Theology, and others. Actually Compendium was the second such LDS book, but in the range of its references and the breadth of its topics, it went far beyond its predecessor, Benjamin Winchester’s Synopsis of the Holy Scriptures (Philadelphia, 1842).

Richards composed this book during his third term as president of the British Mission, and he put it to press a month before he returned to Utah in July 1856. His successor, Orson Pratt, then supervised the printing and binding, which were completed in February 1857.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley and Chad J. Flake, A Mormon Fifty: an exhibition in the Harold B. Lee Library in conjunction with the annual conference of the Mormon History Association. (Provo, Utah, Friends of the Brigham Young University Library, 1984). Item 49, p. [35–36].

Used by permission of the authors.