Essential Brigham Young

After converting to Mormonism in 1832, Brigham Young (1801-77) quickly rose to prominence and three years later was called to the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. He personally directed the highly successful 1839 proselyting mission to Great Britain and was appointed president of the Twelve the following year. In 1846-47 he oversaw the epic colonization of the intermountain west. Self-educated and preoccupied with the pressing business of his widespread empire, Young rarely found time to read. But he delivered hundreds of lively extemporaneous sermons blending common sense with theological speculation. His homespun treatises carried an immediacy absent from the philosophically oriented studies of his colleague Orson Pratt. At the same time, Young's speeches could be unfocused and contradictory. Several of his more controversial teachings--Adam-as-God, divine omniscience, and blood atonement--have sparked considerable debate since they were first uttered more than one hundred years ago. "Will you love your brothers and sisters likewise", he once asked, "when they have committed a sin that cannot be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood?"Young, Brigham is the author of 'Essential Brigham Young' with ISBN 9781560850106 and ISBN 1560850108.