In traditional Christianity, there are significant figures known as the Early Church Fathers who are noted as influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity as we know it today.\u00a0 While the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is still a form of Christianity and is indebted to these early Christian thinkers, Mormonism is its own movement and I\u2019ve often pondered on who we would consider to be the Church Fathers (or Parents) of the Latter-day Saints.\u00a0 Certainly many of the presidents of the Church fall in this category\u2014all three Joseph Smiths, Brigham Young, and Wilford Woodruff among them.\u00a0 Beyond that, however, who would be considered a part of that category?\u00a0 Certainly Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, Eliza R. Snow, James E. Talmage, and Bruce R. McConkie stand out as candidates.\u00a0 Emmaline B. Wells and John A. Widtsoe come to mind as well.\u00a0 It\u2019s probably no surprise to anyone who has been reading my writing for a bit, however, that the first candidate I would suggest is B. H. Roberts.<\/p>\n
Over the course of the almost 90 years that have passed since his death, Elder Brigham Henry Roberts (1857-1933) has received the high praise of being called Mormonism\u2019s most eminent intellectual,[1]<\/a> the best officially accepted theologian that Mormonism has known,[2]<\/a> one of our most important historians,[3]<\/a> and the most prolific and most effective defender of the Church.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Imagine my delight, then, to find that the most significant biography since Truman G. Madsen\u2019s 1980 Defender of the Faith<\/em> was recently published by Signature Books.\u00a0 John Sillito\u2019s B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena<\/em><\/a> is a solid, well-written and well-researched biography.\u00a0 It covers Roberts\u2019s life chronologically, from his rough childhood in England and Utah to his early missions, his involvement in politics in Utah, his election and unseating from the U.S. House of Representatives, his time as a chaplain in WWI, and his service as a mission president in the eastern United States. \u00a0Throughout, the biography has a strong focus on \u201chis actions and activities, and how that involvement made him such an important public figure.\u201d\u00a0 As such, however, it doesn\u2019t try to function as a comprehensive biography of Roberts and doesn\u2019t provide \u201ca thorough chronicling or his theological views and thought,\u201d discussion about the development of the First Council of the Seventy during his tenure in that office, or his private family life.\u00a0 Instead, it aims to \u201cprovide much new information on him and his public life.\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 And it does a splendid job of achieving that goal.<\/p>\n I learned a lot about B. H. Roberts and the context of his life by reading this biography.\u00a0 And that\u2019s not an insignificant statement\u2014I\u2019ve been working on a topical quote book of Roberts\u2019s thought off and on over the last decade and have been working on reading everything I can find that has been written about him or by him during the time.\u00a0 While I still have a decent amount of ground to cover, I knew a lot about B. H. Roberts going into reading B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena<\/em>.\u00a0 Some of the things from Sillito\u2019s biography that I learned more about were a lot of context for the persecution of Mormon missionaries in the Southern United States during Roberts\u2019s time serving there, a deeper understanding of his several conflicts with other Church leaders (particularly Joseph F. Smith and Reed Smoot), and his involvement in politics in Utah after being rejected by the House of Representatives.\u00a0 Sillito\u2019s admiration for Roberts shines through, but he also isn\u2019t uncritical, and the biography doesn\u2019t shy away from pointing out the darker side of B. H. Roberts.\u00a0 For example, Sillito notes that Roberts could be \u201coverbearing, petty, and at times disagreeable,\u201d giving a particularly startling example during his congressional campaign where he called Utah governor Heber M. Wells, \u201ccraven and a son of a bitch\u201d after Wells had publicly criticized him, which led his friend J. Golden Kimball to observe that: \u201cThe spirit Roberts manifested was from hell.\u00a0 He was bitter and malicious.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 I did enjoy some of the more humorous stories too, though, such as a time when he was preaching towards the end of his life and became so animated that his upper dentures became dislodged and flew into the air, only to be caught and returned back to his mouth with barely a pause in his sermon or a time when he lost his temper about having to use a newly-installed microphone and tried to take it out with his cane mid-sermon. \u00a0While it is a \u201cwarts-and-all\u201d biography (at least within the scope of what the biography covers), it helped me to understand Roberts more fully as a person and I appreciated its candor and lack of defensiveness about the main subject.<\/p>\n The biography is very well researched.\u00a0 Footnotes are held at the bottom of each page, giving information about the sources being referenced as well as about the different people that are mentioned throughout the volume.\u00a0 It draws on a variety of sources, from newspapers to journals of people around him throughout his life to letters written by B. H. Roberts (I found the quotes from letters to his mother to be particularly illuminating about his inner thoughts), and much more.\u00a0 I will say appreciated being able to glance down to the bottom of the pages to learn more about the various figures that were being introduced as well as to see where the information was coming from.\u00a0 I admired the level of thoroughness that went into the research and writing of this book.<\/p>\n While Sillito’s work is superior in its level of detail in the areas it covers and in its lack of apologetics,\u00a0 I can’t say that it will replace Truman G. Madsen’s Defender of the Faith: The B. H. Roberts Story<\/em>. (Frankly, though, I don’t think it was intended to take that place.)\u00a0 Madsen’s work is more comprehensive, covering Roberts’s family life, theology, church offices, etc. while Sillito’s biography does not go into details in those areas.\u00a0 Where it does focus,\u00a0 however,\u00a0 it knocks it out of the park.\u00a0 One can walk away from A Life in the Public Arena<\/em> with a good grasp of the life and significance of B. H. Roberts and it is a very important contribution to the study of the subject.<\/p>\n All told, I highly recommend picking up a copy of <\/span>John Sillito\u2019s B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena<\/em><\/a> to add to your library.\u00a0 This is particularly true if you are interested in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints around the turn of the twentieth century, B. H. Roberts as an individual, or the political history of Utah.\u00a0 While not a comprehensive account of B. H. Roberts\u2019s life, it is a valuable contribution to understanding the actions and life of one of Mormonism\u2019s most significant figures.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Updated 8 Dec. 2021<\/p>\n Footnotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n [1]<\/a> See Stan Larson, \u201cIntellectuals in Mormon History: An Update,\u201d Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought <\/em>26 (Fall 1993): 187-189.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> See Blake T. Ostler, \u201cAn Interview with Sterling McMurrin,\u201d Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought <\/em>17 (Spring 1984): 38.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> See Craig Mikkelsen, \u201cThe Politics of B. H. Roberts,\u201d Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought <\/em>9, no. 2, p. 26.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> See McKay V. Jones, \u201cEvasive Ignorance: Anti-Mormon Claims that B. H. Roberts Lost His Testimony,\u201d FAIR, https:\/\/www.fairlatterdaysaints.org\/archive\/publications\/evasive-ignorance-anti-mormon-claims-that-b-h-roberts-lost-his-testimony<\/a>.<\/p>\n