Continuing my reviews of the Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants series by Maxwell Institute, we come to the one on Revelation by Janiece Johnson. Of all the books in the series that I’ve read so far, this one is the one that leans the most heavily into the devotional and practical side of the series. To be clear, that is not a bad thing—it still contains great analysis and discussion of the scriptures in the Doctrine and Covenants and the context of the Restoration, but is primarily focused on discussion around how to receive revelation. She even addresses things like times of silence, when revelation does not seem forthcoming, something that seems all too common but often unacknowledged.

The book is built around the premise that revelation is an important part of godly living, but it takes work and practice to learn how to receive it in its varied forms. Johnson draws on some of Terryl L. Givens’s work on what exactly revelation is and how it differs among Latter-day Saints compared to Protestant Christian praxis (i.e., in By the Hand of Mormon), with a particular emphasis on Martin Luther’s initial revelatory experiences and later imposition of theological limits to revelation to reduce the risk of chaos. She explores how Latter-day Saints have handled the same tension, looking at the Hiram Page seer stone story (much as Richard Lyman Bushman and other historians have done) and Dallin H. Oaks’s “Two Lines of Communication” talk to do so.

One aspect that I particularly appreciated was her efforts to open up a broader view of revelation beyond the “burning of the bosom” described in the early revelations of the Doctrine and Covenants directed to Oliver Cowdery. Terming an observed overreliance on that one approach to revelation (study it out in your mind, seek guidance, and wait for confirmation through the Spirit) the “tyranny of a burning bosom”, Johnson explores other modes of revelation that Latter-day Saints have experienced as well. After all, “God wants to communicate with us in a manner that we will understand, despite our human limitations,” and within humanity, there are a variety of needs and communication styles to be met. She notes that “not having a one-size-fits-all checklist for communicating with God can feel intimidating. … No one snaps their fingers and just gets it; we all have to learn the skill ourselves”, but it also opens up more opportunities for individuals to explore their own path to “revelatory abundance” (p. 73–74).

While Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants: Revelation by Janiece Johnson may not offer much in the way of novel insights and interpretations, it is still an important entry in the series, with its synthesis of scholarship from a variety of sources and practical aspects that make it one of the most applicable to the experiences of many Latter-day Saints of the series thus far.