The fourth out of the seven books in the Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants series that I read is the one by Amy Easton on Divine Aid. As the title implies, the book posits that a repeated theme in the Doctrine and Covenants is divine aid, offered in a variety of ways. As with other volumes in the series, it offers a blend of devotional and scholarly analysis of the Doctrine and Covenants and other related texts to reveal insights that can impact the reader’s life.

One of the key concepts that stood out to me is that understanding how the Lord views us can shape how we interact with the divine. The base assumption she shared is that the Lord sees great potential in each of us, and helps us to work towards that potential as a loving parent would. One way in which that plays out is chastisement. The Doctrine and Covenants does not shy away from chastising people, but to Easton the purpose of that chastisement is to help us grow rather than to punish and humiliate. The Lord is, after all, forgiving and expects us to forgive each other. With that in mind, we can approach chastisement as a learning opportunity and move forward with hope.

Perhaps my favorite part of the book, though, was Easton’s insightful analysis of section 25 of the Doctrine and Covenants, which she uses to talk about “the Lord and how He helps us see and reach greater heights.” As she notes, “All of us are limited in our scope by the world we inhabit. … But God operates under no such limitations. Though He most often chooses to work within the confines of mortal understanding and experience, He is not confined by it. He sees beyond it, and He can help us see beyond it” (pp. 27–29). She points out parallels in revelations to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon that offered callings and answers and examines the text of the revelation, both in its earliest extant form and in its current canonical version, to show how the Lord offered similar things to Emma. She points out that when people dismiss the calling to support and comfort her husband “we dismiss or look down upon this call to our detriment, for this is a call that the Lord extends to each one of us when we choose to follow Him,” and notes that other callings, such as scribing for Joseph, compiling hymnbooks, and expounding and exhorting scriptures were “decidedly male occupation[s]” in her time and place (pp. 35–36). In this way, the revelation shows that, “The Lord sees in Emma potential that most likely none of her associates or even she saw in herself because their immersion in their own time, place, and culture limited their ability to see these possibilities” (p. 40). Given the topic, there were some notable overlaps between Easton’s discussion and the Latter-day Saint Theological Seminar’s As It Shall Be Given Thee: Reading Doctrine and Covenants 25 (which was also a great book), and though it is not cited directly (I assume because As It Shall Be Given Thee came out too late in the process of this book’s production) some of the same researcher’s earlier works are cited, such as those by Rachel Cope and Jenny Reeder. 

Thus, Amy Easton’s volume, Divine Aid: Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants is a worthy addition to literature about the Doctrine and Covenants and a worthwhile addition to the library or Latter-day Saints.