''The Articles of Faith: A Series of Lectures on the Principal Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'' is an 1899 book by

James E. Talmage James Edward Talmage (21 September 1862 – 27 July 1933) was an English chemist, geologist, and religious leader who served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) ...

about doctrines 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 nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ...

(LDS Church). The name of the book is taken from the LDS Church's "Articles of Faith", an 1842 creed written by

Joseph Smith Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, h ...

. Smith's "Articles of Faith" became part of the LDS Church's scriptural canon in 1880 as part of the Pearl of Great Price. In 1891, when the

First Presidency Among many churches in the Latter Day Saint movement, the First Presidency (also known as the Quorum of the Presidency of the Church) is the highest presiding or governing body. Present-day denominations of the movement led by a First Presidency ...

of the LDS Church asked Talmage to produce a work of theology that could be used in church schools, Talmage decided to use Smith's Articles of Faith as an outline of his work. He first delivered the material that he would organize into a book in a series of lectures delivered in 1893 at Latter-day Saints' University in

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, which Talmage was the president of at the time. First published in 1899, Talmage's work is composed of 24 chapters. The first edition was published by the LDS Church, and has gone through over 50 English-language editions. It has also been translated and published in 13 other languages. The book continues to be published today by

Deseret Book Deseret Book () is an American publishing company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, that also operates a chain of bookstores throughout the western United States. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deseret Management Corporation (DMC), the ...

, a publishing company owned by the church. Like Talmage's later work '' Jesus the Christ'', ''Articles of Faith'' is today regarded as a

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into seve ...

classic. For many years, ''Articles of Faith'' and ''Jesus the Christ'' were among the few non-scriptural works that full-time LDS Church

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which 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.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

were asked to study. However, ''Articles of Faith'' is no longer part of the "approved missionary library."

Notes

References

*{{citation , authorlink= David J. Whittaker , first= David J. , last= Whittaker , contribution-url= http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/EoM/id/5486 , contribution= Articles of Faith , pages= 67–69 , editor-last= Ludlow , editor-first= Daniel H , editor-link= Daniel H. Ludlow , year= 1992 , title=

Encyclopedia of Mormonism The ''Encyclopedia of Mormonism'' is a semi-official English-language encyclopedia for topics relevant to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church, see also "Mormon"). The five-volume texts have been digitized and are available ...

, location= New York , publisher=

Macmillan Publishing Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publ ...

, isbn= 0-02-879602-0 , oclc= 24502140 , at p. 69.

External links

''Articles of Faith''
Project Gutenberg Kindle, epub, html, and text editions
''Articles of Faith''
archive.org on-line reader copy of first edition
''Articles of Faith''
archive.org PDF copy of first edition
''Articles of Faith''
archive.org TXT copy of first edition 1899 books 1899 in Christianity Deseret Book books LDS non-fiction Works by James E. Talmage The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints texts Works by apostles (LDS Church)