''A Marvelous Work and a Wonder'' is a 1950 book by LeGrand Richards on the history and doctrine of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

(LDS Church). The book was intended as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

tool and is traditionally cited as the best-selling Mormon book of all time (not including the

standard works The Standard Works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church, the largest in the Latter Day Saint movement) are the four books that currently constitute its open scriptural canon. The four books of the standard works are: * ...

).Lucille C. Tate
"LeGrand Richards: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder"
'' Tambuli'', February 1983. As of 2001, it was said to have sold over three million copies. In 1937, as president of the LDS Church's Southern States Mission, Richards wrote a document entitled "The Message of Mormonism" to assist missionaries in presenting Mormon teachings. In 1950, as presiding bishop of the church, Richards expanded his document into a full-length book, which he named after a phrase used in the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English Bible translations, Early Modern English translation of the Christianity, Christian Bible for the Church of England, wh ...

of Isaiah 29:13–14; Richards identified the teachings of the LDS Church as the wonder referred to. The book was published by Deseret Book, a publisher owned by the LDS Church. Richards donated all proceeds of the sale of the book to the missionary funds of the LDS Church. The book is considered a Mormon classic and for several years was among the few non-scriptural works that full-time LDS Church missionaries were asked to study. However, ''A Marvelous Work and a Wonder'' is no longer part of the "approved missionary library."

References

1950 non-fiction books 1950 in Christianity Deseret Book books LDS non-fiction The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints texts Works by apostles (LDS Church) {{LDS-book-stub