A Catholic Engagement with Latter-Day Saints

In this unique work, a collection of Catholic scholars address several theological topics about which Latter-day Saints and Catholics hold contrary beliefs: the Great Apostasy, the papacy, the Eucharist, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the nature of God, justification, sainthood, liturgy, and deification. The contributors, some of whom are converts to Catholicism from Mormonism, offer a respectful, though critical, analysis of the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Catholics have done very little thinking about or interaction with Latter-day Saint theological beliefs. The Catholic Church has focused virtually all its ecumenical efforts on the ecclesial communities that arose from the Reformation, the Orthodox Churches, and Judaism. Left out of these discussions has been the LDS church, even though by 2016 it had grown to nearly sixteen million members internationally from its modest beginnings in 1830.

This work examines the LDS faith as an important and serious challenge to the Catholic narrative of the origin and development of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Absent the ad hominem attacks and lurid historical details that are often found in popular Christian assessments of the LDS church, this book is intended by its editors to lead to further dialogue and better understanding.

Francis J. Beckwith, Ph.D., is Professor of Philosophy and Church-State Studies at Baylor University. Among his many books are The New Mormon Challenge and Taking Rites Seriously: Law, Politics, and the Reasonableness of Faith, winner of the American Academy of Religion’s 2016 Book Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the category of Constructive-Reflective Studies.

Richard Sherlock, Ph.D., a former Mormon who became Catholic in 2012, was a professor of philosophy for thirty-seven years at Utah State University.