Both the term “standard works” and
its meaning have evolved and solidified over many years of Church history. It
began in the latter half of the 1800s as a loose term that implied that the
fundamental doctrines of the Church were to be found in and measured by the
books written for the information, edification, and direction of the Church,
especially containing the revelations of its leaders, but also accounts of
their lives and sermons. By around 1900, because of the influence of Elder
James E. Talmage and President Joseph F. Smith, the different parts of the term
began to solidify into one definite meaning. Early variations included
“doctrinal standards,” “church works,” “standards of the Church,” “standard
church books,” and “standard church works,” but today is almost exclusively
given as “standard works.” This term has now come to signify the source of near
absolute doctrinal measurement and authority in the Church and is only applied
to four books of written and canonized revelations (or scripture): The Bible,
the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.
In fact, today the word
“scriptures” is often to be heard or used more than the term “standard works.”
While this is not overly concerning, it does tend to blur the line between
spoken/verbal/oral scripture, which is given forth every time a righteous
person speaks by the power of the Holy Ghost, and the canonized and binding
scriptures, which constitute
the four books of Latter-day Saints scripture.
Even though the Bible and the Book
of Mormon have not been formally sustained in General Conference by the
membership assembled, they are formally stated to be the word of God in the
Articles of Faith (which have been sustained by the Church) and are so
fundamental as to be beyond question books of the scriptural canon. Further,
because a book was referred to or designated as a “standard work” in the 1800s,
does not make it so now. Certainly no one should regard the Journal of Discourses as canonized
scripture.
From Determining Doctrine:
Encyclopedia of
Mormonism:
Standard
works are the books accepted by Latter-day Saints as scripture: the Bible, Book
of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. In early
Latter-day Saint usage, the term apparently included more writings than the
scriptures. In 1874 George A. Smith described “standard works” as the
scriptures and other works published by the Church that illustrate “the
principles of life and salvation made known in the gospel of Jesus Christ” (JD
17:161; cf. 11:364). By 1900, however, the phrase “standard works” came to
refer only to the scriptures (Smith, pp. 363-65; A of F, p. 7). (Clyde J. Williams, “Standard Works,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 5 vols. [New
York and Toronto: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992], 3:1415.)
A few more examples of the early
usage and broader meaning of the term “standard works” are given below.
George Q. Cannon (1861):
The Journal of Discourses deservedly
ranks as one of the standard works of the Church, and every right minded Saint
will certainly welcome with joy every Number as it comes forth from the press
as an additional reflector of “the light that shines from Zion ’s hill.”…
The
Publisher (George Q. Cannon, editor and publisher, Journal of Discourses 26 vols. [Liverpool and London: Latter-day
Saints Book Depot, 1861], 8; preface.)
George Q. Cannon:
We see no reason why the volumes of
the FAITH-PROMOTING SERIES already published, as well as those which may
follow, should not be regarded as standard works for the Church and used for
home reading or Sunday School class books when the authors and those whose
history they treat shall have passed to another sphere of action.
Daniel H. Wells (1867; consider with BY quotation following):
Upon this latter point, especially,
let me say a word. Let us provide schools, competent teachers, and good books
for our children, and let us pay our teachers. I would have no objection to
seeing the standard works of the Church introduced into our schools, that our
children may be taught more pertaining to the principles of the gospel in the
future than they are at present….
There are other works that are good,
against which I do not wish to say anything; but let us first sustain our own
works, which are exclusively devoted to the spread of the principles of truth. The
Lord has undertaken to raise the standard of truth in the earth through the
instrumentality of His servants, and it is the duty of the Saints to sustain
those works which have the dissemination of truth for their only object. (Journal
of Discourses, 26 vols. [London: Latter-day Saints' Book Depot, 1854-86],
12:376, 377.)
Brigham Young (1867):
I do hope,
and pray you, my brethren and sisters, to be careful to observe what Br. Wells
has said in regard to introducing into our schools the Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine
and Covenants, and the standard works of the Church, and all the works
pertaining to our faith, that our children may become acquainted with its
principles, and that our young men, when they go out to preach, may not be so
ignorant as they have been hitherto. (Journal of Discourses, 26 vols.
[London: Latter-day Saints' Book Depot, 1854-86], 12: 406.)
George A. Smith (1874):
I want to express my admiration of
brother Goddard and a number of other school superintendents and teachers, with
whom I am acquainted, because of their efforts to spread among the young
throughout the Territory a knowledge of the principles of the Gospel, as taught
in the Bible, Book of Mormon, Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and in the
standard works of the Church. (Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London:
Latter-day Saints' Book Depot, 1854-86], 17: 257-258.)
Alexander B. Morrison:
These four
books make up the “standard works” of the Church, a term first used a century
ago by Elder James E. Talmage. (“The
Latter-day Saint Concept of Canon,” in Historicity
and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures [Provo ,
Utah Religious Studies
Center Brigham Young
University
James E. Talmage (1899):
The
Standard Works of the Church form our written authority in doctrine; but they
are by no means our only sources of information and instruction on the theology
of the Church. We believe that God is as willing today as He ever has been to
reveal His mind and will to man, and that He does so through chosen and
appointed channels. We rely therefore on the teachings of the living oracles of
God as of equal validity with the doctrines of the written word, the men in
chief authority being acknowledged and accepted by the Church as prophets and
revelators, and as being in possession of the power of the holy Priesthood. The
written works adopted by the vote of the Church as authoritative guides in
faith and doctrine are four,—the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and
Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Other works have been and are being issued
by officers and members of the Church, and many such books are unreservedly
sanctioned by the people and their ecclesiastical authorities; but the four
publications named are the only regularly constituted standard works of the
Church. Of the doctrine treated in the authorized standards, the Articles of
Faith may be regarded as a fair, though necessarily but an incomplete epitome. (The Articles of Faith, 5th
edition [Salt Lake City :
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Deseret News, 1909], 5.
According to the preface the 5th edition is unchanged from the 1st.)
Joseph
F. Smith (1903):
We would recommend to conference
presidents and other presiding officers in the various branches of the Church,
that where possible, they have the elders in their charge follow regularly and
systematically a study of the standard works and other approved publications of
the Church, thus more fully equipping themselves as teachers to the world….
Brethren…keep closely to the
teachings of the revealed word, as made plain in the standard works of the
Church and through the utterances of the living prophets; and let not a
difference of views on abstruse matters of doctrine absorb your attention, lest
thereby you become estranged from one another and separated from the Spirit of
the Lord.
The standard works of the Church and
other approved writings should be carefully studied and commented on by the
brethren; every Latter-day Saint, and particularly every elder in the field,
should seek to become learned in the gospel; but let it not be forgotten that
to understand the inspired writings aright the reader must himself have the
spirit of inspiration; and this spirit will never impel one to hostile
discussion or wordy contests…. (Juvenile
Instructor, vol. 38, October 15, 1903, 624; cited in Gospel
Doctrine, comp. John A. Widtsoe [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1939],
362-65.)
The following excerpt from a 1905
First Presidency message indicates that by that time they were well aware of
the distinction between general uncanonized “church works” and the purely
scriptural and canonized “standard works.”
The First Presidency (Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder,
Anthon H. Lund, 1905):
Of Church
works at present in active preparation are the third volume of the History of the Church; a Church history,
adapted in style and conciseness for the use of our youth, and a concordance of
the book of Doctrine and Covenants. A number of excellent publications
explanatory of the doctrine and discipline of the Church have been issued by
their respective authors, who are personally responsible for their contents and
whose efforts to extend information are to be highly commended. The standard
works of the Church, however, recognized and adopted as such by the Latter-day
Saints, remain, as formerly, the Bible, (King James' translation), the Book of
Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. (Greeting
from the First Presidency; cited in Improvement
Era, vol. 8. January, 1905, no. 3; see also James R. Clark, comp., Messages
of the First Presidency, 6 vols. [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965-75],
4:97.)
James E. Talmage (1924):
The
Standard Works of the Church constitute the written authority of the Church in
doctrine. Nevertheless, the Church holds itself in readiness to receive
additional light and knowledge “pertaining to the Kingdom of God
These books
have been adopted by the members of the Church, in conference officially
assembled, as their Standard Works. (The
Articles of Faith [Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, 1924], 7 and 457.)
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