Review
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Title: Our Savior: A Fourteen Part Course on the Life of Christ
Author: Various
Publisher: Deseret Book
Genre: Doctrinal
Year Published: 2007
Format: CD’s
Length/Number of CD’s: 12.3 Hours on 14 CD’s
ISBN: 13:978-1-59038-919-1
Price: $39.95

Reviewed by Andrew Hamilton

From Nov. 17, 2006 to June 16, 2007, the BYU Museum of Art ran an exhibit called “Beholding Salvation.” The exhibit included 170 works of art from around the world that were organized to take patrons from the Annunciation to the Resurrection. In connection with the exhibit, the museum sponsored a series of 14 lectures on the life, ministry, and atonement of Jesus Christ. The recordings of these lectures, given mostly by professors from the BYU Religion department, make up the new Deseret Book release “Our Savior.”

The lectures start with a discussion of “The Savior’s Premortal Ministry,” by Alonzo Gaskill, and conclude with a discussion of “Christ and the Restoration,” by Joseph Fielding McConkie. Some of the other topics covered include: “The Birth of the Savior,” “The Baptism and Temptations of Jesus,” “The Sermon on the Mount,” “The Parables,” “The Last Supper,” “ Gethsemane and Trial,” “Crucifixion and Resurrection,” and “Post Resurrection Appearances.”

I feel that “Our Savior” will be a great addition to LDS thought and discussion on the life and ministry of the Savior because the talks have great depth and insights. Generally these days, if you go to Deseret Book, Seagull Book, or to the Deseret Book wannabe’s, it seems that most of the books that are being pushed and promoted are in the “gift book/coffee table book/art book,” type categories. Sure, these books look really nice with their oversized, glossy covers and their plethora of pretty pictures inside, but what else do they offer? They look very nice, but have few depths or insights. The “doctrinal” type books that Deseret and Covenant do promote are usually just oversized re-releases of previous books that now include artwork (such as the Covenant “Heritage” releases of “The House of the Lord,” and “Jesus The Christ,” or the Deseret re-releases of “The Holy Temple,” and “Christ and the New Covenant”). That’s why I really liked “Our Savior.” The speakers took time to discuss ideas in-depth that I haven’t seen in most “main-stream” current LDS books.

It starts with the first talk by Alonzo Gaskill. Quoting Joseph Smith he says, “‘God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret…if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form-like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man.’ More familiar of course is the couplet from Lorenzo Snow…‘as man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be.’ The point being that of course, as we understand the doctrine, God the Father became what He is, an exalted being, in the same way that you and I will become such, and in the same way our Savior, Jesus Christ, has became such.” He also speaks of Jesus’ spirit birth and the beginning of the Godhead, how Jesus became a God in His pre-mortal state, sin in the pre-mortal life, and quotes a vision of Mosiah Hancock on how we were taught in the preexistence.

Other topics from the series I found interesting included: The Sermon on the Mount as a Temple/Endowment Text by John Welch. The meaning of Christ’s last teachings, including the idea that the 10 virgins were the brides in the parable, the meaning of Matthew 24, and the Temple connections of the wedding garment in Matthew 22 by Gaye Strathearn. Possible motivations for Judas’s betrayal and how to find harmony between John and the Synoptic Gospels accounts of the Last Supper by Thomas Wayment. Why the different Gospel authors focus on different aspects of Gethsemane, Johannine Theology, and why Latter-day Saints need to focus more on the whole “journey” of the Atonement, and not skip past the crucifixion so they can “be happy again” by Eric Huntsman. The meaning of Christ’s post mortal appearances in the lives of the Apostles by Richard Draper, and Joseph Fielding McConkie’s discussion of Twelve doctrines of Christ exclusive to the restoration.

The presentations in this series are introduced as “lectures” on the CD’s, I suppose this is in part because they were held in the Museum and not in the religion building. Some may debate this point. Some of the talks, notably those by Gaskill, Welch, Strathearn, and C Wilfred Griggs I would call “lectures.” While no one sermonizes in any of these talks, I would put several of them more in the “devotional,” or “fireside,” category, most notably Terry Ball.

There are in my opinion no major weaknesses in “Our Savior,” although I would have done a few things differently. Of the 14 speakers twelve are men and thirteen of them are from the U.S. (Gaye Strathearn, one of the two women to speak in the series, is from Australia ). I don’t know what the demographic makeup of the BYU Religion Department is, so I don’t know what kind of a pool they had to draw on when considering speakers for this series. I think it may have been stronger, and perhaps more interesting and universal, had it involved more women and more international professors.

Another, minor complaint is technical and relates to Deseret Book CD products in general. All of the books and talks on CD by both Deseret and Covenant Communications include a company introduction accompanied by a signature musical introduction. Talks and firesides on CD often then include an introduction of the speaker. Titles by Covenant have these introductions on a separate track so that the listener can push one button and skip right to the talk if they want. Deseret lumps the introductions and beginning of the talk together on one track. This is a minor inconvenience, especially compared to tapes and other older technologies, but Deseret could easily separate the introductions and talks with no added expense or trouble.

The price may be a bit high for some at $39.95, but that’s about average for a CD set of this size; besides, people pay hundreds of dollars to take BYU religion classes, or to go to Education Week, and this set gives you an almost semester long course on the life of the Savior for only 39 bucks, not a bad deal.