A Smattering of Brieviews, part 1: Smith Dayley

In the midst of a busy spell, I have had the great pleasure of realizing that three friends have had books released within a month of each other. In three successive posts, I want to briefly review (=brieview) these books. These should not be seen as replacing formal reviews of these books, which I hope will run at BCC. Think of these as prelude music.

An old friend, representing many old friends, has just published a fascinating book. For All the Saints synthesizes a large volume of oral history interviews commissioned by Clayton Christensen, a towering figure in contemporary Mormonism. Christensen and others saw in the lives and faith of the LDS of New England, radiating outward from a center in the Boston area, important insights for Saints throughout the Church. I think practicing LDS who have lived in the Boston area will find great pleasure in this book, which moves well beyond the tired “mission field” depiction of life outside the Mormon Culture Region. Many of the people whose stories are told will be familiar; many will be new. I hope that there are many more treatments of life among “the ungathered” (Christopher Jones’s term, as I recall), both devotional, as in this case, and academic. Kudos to Cedar Fort for publishing this book in attractive hardcover.