What Was Elder McConkie's "Sound Doctrine"?

Bruce R. McConkie planned to release an abbreviated version of the Journal of Discourses in a series named Sound Doctrine. The volumes were to feature selected sermons that Elder McConkie felt best showcased Latter-day Saint doctrine, excluding controversial topics like Brigham Young’s Adam-God theory. However, the First Presidency advised against publishing it. Biographer Devery S. Anderson tells the story of Elder McConkie’s unpublished book in this interview.

Learn more about Elder McConkie’s unpublished book in the new biography by Devery S. Anderson.

What was Bruce R. McConkie’s “Sound Doctrine” project?

Sound Doctrine was a ten-volume project that would reprint and make accessible what Elder McConkie deemed the “best of,” or about a fifth of the twenty-six-volume Journal of Discourse sermons by Brigham Young and others in the nineteenth century.

The book is different from Mormon Doctrine. Rather than authoring an encyclopedic work, McConkie compiled others’ sermons.

What was his church calling?

Bruce R. McConkie had been a member of the First Council of Seventy since 1946, or around nine years at the time he planned to publish an abbreviated version of the Journal of Discourses.

What was his goal?

Bruce R. McConkie’s goal in compiling select sermons from the Journal of Discourses was to benefit church members. In particular, he felt they would benefit from greater access to the talks that best reflected his understanding of Latter-day Saint doctrine. He intended to avoid many controversial discourses, such as Brigham Young’s teachings about the Adam-God theory.

What strengths did he bring to the project?

McConkie’s passion for theology and doctrine and his strong familiarity with sermons in the Journal of Discourses constituted just a couple of the strengths he brought to the project. As seen in his later work, Mormon Doctrine, he also had a knack for organization. Combined with those attributes and his gifts as a prolific reader, he was perhaps the most likely person to undertake such a massive project.

We also know that Elder McConkie felt his motives were one of his strengths. For example, he expressed concern to his father-in-law, Joseph Fielding Smith, that one day someone might undertake the project without the needed skills. He worried about what could happen if that person had questionable motives and felt that his own motives were pure.

How might Elder McConkie have viewed transcription errors in the Journal of Discourses?

LaJean Carruth has done an excellent job identifying Journal of Discourse inaccuracies stemming from transcription errors. I don’t know that McConkie would have felt that any of the sermons were transcribed inaccurately. Instead, I tend to think he may have believed that alternate interpretations could be applied to such ideas as the Adam-God doctrine. He was a master of harmonizing conflicting ideas.

What Did Brigham Young Teach About Adam and God?

Does Elder McConkie’s draft Introduction still exist?

I don’t know. Joseph Fielding McConkie, the son of Elder McConkie, eventually published the first volume of Sound Doctrine twenty years later in 1975. It includes a brief introduction, but we don’t know if that was slightly revised from the Apostle’s original introduction or if his son completely rewrote it.

What did the First Presidency think of the project?

First Presidency counselor J. Reuben Clark learned about it after seeing it advertised and became very concerned. He felt publishing some of the sermons would inspire enemies of the church to look into the others and open a can of worms.

For example, in a letter drafted (but never sent) to Elder McConkie, the First Presidency explained:

Sometimes the Brethren in earlier days advanced ideas for which there is little or no direct support in the scriptures (they are largely speculative) and which have not received the support of the Brethren since then who have felt that the views expressed contained matters that might be called ‘mysteries,’ concerning which the Lord has not yet revealed the Truth.
First Presidency to Bruce R. McConkie, Feb. 9, 1956, draft copy, courtesy of Smith-Pettit Foundation.

President Clark also worried that the title Sound Doctrine implied that the church also taught things that could be considered unsound doctrine. We also know that Clark expressed concern about McConkie’s inclusion of a Journal of Discourses sermon about electricity because it no longer aligned with scientific understanding.

The First Presidency furthermore expressed displeasure that Elder McConkie didn’t clear the work with them first.

What was the deliberation process like as the First Presidency reviewed the project?

J. Reuben Clark was the driving force behind canceling McConkie’s Journal of Discourses project. He spoke directly with McConkie on more than one occasion. Elder McConkie also met with Presidents David O. McKay, Stephen L Richards, and Clark on November 9, 1959.

But it was a one-on-one meeting between Clark and McConkie where Clark finally asked him to end the project, believing he was conveying the thoughts of his two colleagues.

How did Elder McConkie find out the project was nixed?

J. Reuben Clark told Elder McConkie not to proceed with Sound Doctrine when the two met together in Clark’s office on March 15, 1956.

Interestingly, the First Presidency drafted a letter to Elder McConkie telling him not to go forward with an abbreviated version of the Journal of Discourses, but never sent it. The letter included a statement echoed by President Clark in their meeting:

We feel constrained to request that you give up the idea of an abridged edition of the Journal of Discourses.
First Presidency to Bruce R. McConkie, Feb. 9, 1956, draft copy, courtesy of Smith-Pettit Foundation.

Marketing for “Sound Doctrine” had already begun. What did the initial ad say?

The ad played up the contents as containing information long out of print and out of reach of most members, and they felt it was about time for a new generation to read the sermons. The publisher believed members would greatly benefit from them and put words to that effect in the advertising.

An advertisement for *Sound Doctrine* highlighted the benefits church members could receive by reading the selections from the *Journal of Discourses*. The ad is also how the First Presidency became aware of the series.

How did “Sound Doctrine” influence the development of policies for books written by general authorities?

Today, there are clear policies dictating books written by general authorities. In Elder McConkie’s day, his project helped shape the First Presidency’s view that general authorities should clear books with the presidency before submitting manuscripts. However, this appears to have been only an informal instruction when McConkie was working on an abbreviated version of the Journal of Discourses.

Elder McConkie admitted he had erred in not clearing Sound Doctrine with the First Presidency. He also agreed with several of the specific criticisms shared by President Clark, and apologized that marketing for the book had already begun:

I am sorry these ads have appeared and wish to assure you that every effort was made to stop the appearance of those published since my interview with the First Presidency, and that they are not intended in any way to embarrass or pressure you Brethren.
McConkie to First Presidency, Dec. 1, 1955.

It wasn’t until McConkie again went through the publication process without informing the First Presidency (this time in 1958 for Mormon Doctrine) that the Brethren formalized the rule.

Was Sound Doctrine ever published?

Yes, in part—but it took twenty years. Elder McConkie intended to publish the first volume of his abbreviated Journal of Discourses series in 1955, but the First Presidency stopped the project. Two decades later, Joseph Fielding McConkie published the first volume with Bookcraft in 1975.

Did the First Presidency still have the same concerns when Joseph Fielding McConkie published it?

Joseph Fielding McConkie wouldn’t have been under the same constraints as his father. He wasn’t a general authority, so the rule to seek First Presidency approval didn’t apply to him. Plus, by the time he went to press in 1975, the entire First Presidency involved in the 1955 discussions were dead. It’s likely that Joseph Fielding McConkie submitted the manuscript to Bookcraft and let the publisher make the call.

Why weren’t the remaining five volumes published?

It’s hard to say. I’ve heard Joseph Fielding McConkie never planned to publish more volumes. They would have required much more work than finessing the volume already completed by his father.

However, the book was also published as “volume one,” which implied that more volumes were forthcoming.

In the end, Bookcraft told Joseph Fielding McConkie that they thought they could do better by just reprinting the original twenty-six volume run of the Journal of Discourses.

How is Sound Doctrine covered in the other two Bruce R. McConkie biographies?

Joseph Fielding McConkie does not mention it at all in his 2003 biography of his father. Dennis Horne mentions it briefly and only says that it “never got off the ground.” He does not mention the First Presidency meetings with David O. McKay.

What else would you like people to know about the Sound Doctrine project?

It tells us all about McConkie’s passion for contributing to the doctrines and teachings of the church and that he was headstrong enough to undertake it on his own and see it through to fruition. He believed strongly in his own book projects and was willing to pursue them on his own and with fervor until told otherwise.

What impact do you think Sound Doctrine would have had if it had been published?

I believe it would have created a renewed interest in these sermons. I also think that people would have sought them out to the anxiety of church leaders, just as the First Presidency feared in 1955. They likely would have been accused of censoring the other speeches, which they wanted to avoid.

How did Elder McConkie’s goals align with his efforts to increase scriptural literacy within the church?

He believed strongly that teachings needed to be grounded squarely in the scriptures (although he didn’t always succeed in that with his own teachings), so by selecting the “best of” sermons, I believe he intended to provide the sermons that met that standard the best.

About the interview participant

Devery S. Anderson is the author of several books about Latter-day Saint and American history. His publications include Bruce R. McConkie: Apostle and Polemicist, 1915–1985, Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement, and Salt Lake School of the Prophets, 1867-1883.