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The Truth, The Way, The Life: An Elementary Treaties on Theology
Less than ten years before his death in 1933, B. H. Roberts, one of the most influential Mormon writers of the twentieth century, began work on “the most important book that I have yet contributed to the [LDS] Church.” A prolific and respected Mormon apologist, Roberts wanted to consolidate his theological thought into a unified whole and to reconcile science with scripture. His final manuscript, “The Truth, the Way, the Life,” synthesized doctrine into three the truth about the world and revelation, the way of salvation, and Jesus’ life in shaping Christian character. He submitted his completed work to the LDS First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, which, after a series of heated meetings, rejected it. Roberts’s views on evolution, the age of the earth, the pre-earth existence, and the eternal progression of God were deemed too controversial, so his “masterwork” went unpublished. With the support of the Roberts family, editor Stan Larson has corrected this sixty-year omission from the corpus of Mormon theology. According to Leonard J. Arrington, former LDS Church Historian, “B. H. Roberts considered ‘The Truth, The Way, The Life’ to be the most important work he had written. While people may differ with him on that judgement, this ambitious treatise . . . shows a great mind grappling with great issues.”
800 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
About the author
B.H. Roberts
413 books15 followersBrigham Henry Roberts was a Mormon leader, historian, and politician who published a six-volume history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and was denied a seat as a member of United States Congress because of his practice of plural marriage.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 22, 2024
What to say about The truth, The Way, The Life. My mind and heart seemed drawn to it and drawn to B.H. Roberts through it. Of course his work is a masterpiece, an effort to synthesize faith-thought, faith-feeling, and human intellect. A few citations will suffice to illustrate and represent my feelings and regard for B.H. Roberts the man. These resonate with me and I hope to some degree describe me and what I have felt as I have pursued truth.
“Roberts was the epitome of what one might call the “faithful intellectual.” He believed that the quest for knowledge involved both the life of the mind and the life of the spirit—that intellectuality and faith must go hand-in-hand in their search for truth. As his leading biographer has written: He loved simple faith if simple meant uncluttered and strong. But he was troubled that the phrase is sometimes used as a synonym for “simpering acquiescence.” And he could find nothing in the scriptures, ancient or modern, to excuse anyone from brain sweat and from the arduous lifetime burden of seeking “revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge,” the expansion of truth and light until one is “glorified in truth and knoweth all things.”
— James B. Allen Analytical Essay, The Story of The Truth, The Way, The Life as recorded in Roberts, B. H.. The Truth, The Way, The Life: An Elementary Treatise on Theology . Deseret Book Company. Kindle Edition.
“Such disciples are men who have been attracted to a new doctrine by the fact that it gave expression, in a novel way, to some large and deep interest which had already grown up in themselves, and which had already come, more or less independently, to their own consciousness. They thus bring to the new teaching, from the first, their own personal contribution. The truth that they gain is changed as it enters their souls. The seed that the sower strews upon their fields springs up in their soil, and bears fruit,—thirty, sixty, an hundred fold. They return to their master his own with usury. Such men are the disciples that it is worth while for a master to have. Disciples of the first sort often become, as Schopenhauer said, mere magnifying mirrors wherein one sees enlarged, all the defects of a doctrine. Disciples of the second sort co-operate in the works of the Spirit; and even if they always remain rather disciples than originators, they help to lead the thought that they accept to a truer expression. They force it beyond its earlier and cruder stages of development."
— Josiah Royce, The Story of The Truth, The Way, The Life as recorded by James B. Allen in , B. H..Roberts The Truth, The Way, The Life: An Elementary Treatise on Theology . Deseret Book Company. Kindle Edition.
“Nevertheless, it is the nature of people like Roberts to maintain faith even while being willing to seriously investigate questions that could alter some implications of that faith.”
— James B. Allen Analytical Essay, The Story of The Truth, The Way, The Life as recorded in Roberts, B. H.. The Truth, The Way, The Life: An Elementary Treatise on Theology . Deseret Book Company. Kindle Edition.
“Roberts was the epitome of what one might call the “faithful intellectual.” He believed that the quest for knowledge involved both the life of the mind and the life of the spirit—that intellectuality and faith must go hand-in-hand in their search for truth. As his leading biographer has written: He loved simple faith if simple meant uncluttered and strong. But he was troubled that the phrase is sometimes used as a synonym for “simpering acquiescence.” And he could find nothing in the scriptures, ancient or modern, to excuse anyone from brain sweat and from the arduous lifetime burden of seeking “revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge,” the expansion of truth and light until one is “glorified in truth and knoweth all things.”
— James B. Allen Analytical Essay, The Story of The Truth, The Way, The Life as recorded in Roberts, B. H.. The Truth, The Way, The Life: An Elementary Treatise on Theology . Deseret Book Company. Kindle Edition.
“Such disciples are men who have been attracted to a new doctrine by the fact that it gave expression, in a novel way, to some large and deep interest which had already grown up in themselves, and which had already come, more or less independently, to their own consciousness. They thus bring to the new teaching, from the first, their own personal contribution. The truth that they gain is changed as it enters their souls. The seed that the sower strews upon their fields springs up in their soil, and bears fruit,—thirty, sixty, an hundred fold. They return to their master his own with usury. Such men are the disciples that it is worth while for a master to have. Disciples of the first sort often become, as Schopenhauer said, mere magnifying mirrors wherein one sees enlarged, all the defects of a doctrine. Disciples of the second sort co-operate in the works of the Spirit; and even if they always remain rather disciples than originators, they help to lead the thought that they accept to a truer expression. They force it beyond its earlier and cruder stages of development."
— Josiah Royce, The Story of The Truth, The Way, The Life as recorded by James B. Allen in , B. H..Roberts The Truth, The Way, The Life: An Elementary Treatise on Theology . Deseret Book Company. Kindle Edition.
“Nevertheless, it is the nature of people like Roberts to maintain faith even while being willing to seriously investigate questions that could alter some implications of that faith.”
— James B. Allen Analytical Essay, The Story of The Truth, The Way, The Life as recorded in Roberts, B. H.. The Truth, The Way, The Life: An Elementary Treatise on Theology . Deseret Book Company. Kindle Edition.
July 13, 2023
BOOK REVIEW - The Truth, The Way, The Life by B. H. Roberts (07.13.23)
This book sat on my shelf for over 20 years before I finally tackled it. Although dense, I am glad I finally did. B. H. Roberts, one of the most prominent intellectual leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early 20th century, spent his final years producing what he regarded as the capstone of his life’s work: The Truth, The Way, The Life: An Elementary Treatise on Theology. Composed in 1927–28, this ambitious manuscript attempted something no other Latter-day Saint leader had quite dared—a comprehensive, systematic theology of Mormonism. Roberts organized the treatise into three parts, building on Jesus’ declaration in John 14:6.
“The Truth” sets out the foundations of reality: intelligences, eternal law, matter, and the cosmos. Here Roberts insists that eternal intelligences are co-eternal with God and that divine governance is exercised through persuasion and law, not arbitrary will.
“The Way” explores the divine plan of salvation, with particular focus on the role of Christ’s Atonement in reconciling man to God while preserving human agency.
“The Life” shifts to Christ as exemplar—arguing that the principles of truth and salvation must ultimately be embodied in the lived life of discipleship patterned on Jesus.
The result is part theological system, part philosophical treatise, and part devotional handbook—a rare attempt to weave together Mormon scripture, metaphysics, and ethics in a single frame. Roberts’s theology emphasized themes that remain distinctively LDS:
Intelligences and agency - Human beings are eternal intelligences, never created, and thus moral agency is fundamental to God’s plan.
God and eternal law - God Himself operates within an ordered cosmos of law; His greatness is manifested in harmony with, not arbitrary suspension of, those laws.
Cosmos without end - Roberts drew heavily on Doctrine and Covenants 76 and Moses 1 to underscore the infinity of worlds, a vision he believed compatible with astronomy and modern science.
The Atonement - Salvation is made possible through Christ, but Roberts stressed the intellectual and moral coherence of the plan—God both honors eternal justice and extends mercy through Christ’s sacrifice.
What sets the treatise apart is Roberts’s conviction that revealed truth and scientific truth ultimately converge. Unlike some contemporaries, he did not fear science, geology, evolution; rather, he believed they expanded one’s awe at God’s universe.
It was precisely this openness to science that stirred conflict. Roberts affirmed that death and change had existed on the earth long before Adam and Eve. He also entertained the possibility of pre-Adamic races—ideas that clashed sharply with Elder Joseph Fielding Smith’s insistence on a young earth and a literal reading of Genesis. The debate came to a head in Church councils of the late 1920s, where Roberts defended his manuscript against Smith’s objections.
Ultimately, the First Presidency declined to publish Roberts’s work. They counseled the Brethren to avoid making dogma of scientific questions and left the manuscript shelved. Because of this controversy, Roberts’s magnum opus remained unpublished for over six decades. It was only in the 1990s that BYU Studies, prepared the text for publication. This critical edition included Roberts’s full manuscript, historical essays, and extensive annotations, allowing readers to assess both his vision and the institutional tensions it provoked.
The delay underscores a broader dynamic in Mormon intellectual history: the balance between doctrinal authority and speculative theology, and the occasional unease when prophetic pronouncements appear to collide with scientific findings.
Although unpublished in Roberts’s lifetime, The Truth, The Way, The Life left a quiet but significant imprint. Circulating privately, it influenced subsequent LDS thinkers who sought a more philosophical articulation of Restoration doctrine. After its eventual publication, it has been hailed as the most systematic theological work ever produced by a general authority.
Roberts’s emphasis on uncreated intelligences, moral agency, and an infinite, law-governed cosmos remains foundational to Mormon metaphysics. His effort to harmonize science and revelation set a precedent for later Latter-day Saint scholars grappling with evolution, cosmology, and the philosophy of religion. And his closing focus on “The Life”—the imitation of Christ—anchors the treatise in practical discipleship rather than speculation alone.
Quotes:
“What science discovers helps us to realize the greatness and wonderfulness of this revelation in the new fragment of the revelation of God to Moses, wherein we are told that ‘there are many worlds,’ so many, that they are innumerable to man; ‘the heavens they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man. . . . Many worlds have passed away, by the word of God’s power; and as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come’ … and there is no end to God’s works!”
“As this work is concerned chiefly with man, it is of man’s mind, or man as an intelligence, that we shall here speak of him, and of his relationships to other intelligences of this and of other worlds. … The term ‘intelligence’ is descriptive of the thing to which it is applied. Intelligence (mind), or intelligences (minds), thus conceived, are conscious beings—conscious of self and of the not-self … ‘Intelligence is that which sees itself … both subject and object.’”
This book sat on my shelf for over 20 years before I finally tackled it. Although dense, I am glad I finally did. B. H. Roberts, one of the most prominent intellectual leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early 20th century, spent his final years producing what he regarded as the capstone of his life’s work: The Truth, The Way, The Life: An Elementary Treatise on Theology. Composed in 1927–28, this ambitious manuscript attempted something no other Latter-day Saint leader had quite dared—a comprehensive, systematic theology of Mormonism. Roberts organized the treatise into three parts, building on Jesus’ declaration in John 14:6.
“The Truth” sets out the foundations of reality: intelligences, eternal law, matter, and the cosmos. Here Roberts insists that eternal intelligences are co-eternal with God and that divine governance is exercised through persuasion and law, not arbitrary will.
“The Way” explores the divine plan of salvation, with particular focus on the role of Christ’s Atonement in reconciling man to God while preserving human agency.
“The Life” shifts to Christ as exemplar—arguing that the principles of truth and salvation must ultimately be embodied in the lived life of discipleship patterned on Jesus.
The result is part theological system, part philosophical treatise, and part devotional handbook—a rare attempt to weave together Mormon scripture, metaphysics, and ethics in a single frame. Roberts’s theology emphasized themes that remain distinctively LDS:
Intelligences and agency - Human beings are eternal intelligences, never created, and thus moral agency is fundamental to God’s plan.
God and eternal law - God Himself operates within an ordered cosmos of law; His greatness is manifested in harmony with, not arbitrary suspension of, those laws.
Cosmos without end - Roberts drew heavily on Doctrine and Covenants 76 and Moses 1 to underscore the infinity of worlds, a vision he believed compatible with astronomy and modern science.
The Atonement - Salvation is made possible through Christ, but Roberts stressed the intellectual and moral coherence of the plan—God both honors eternal justice and extends mercy through Christ’s sacrifice.
What sets the treatise apart is Roberts’s conviction that revealed truth and scientific truth ultimately converge. Unlike some contemporaries, he did not fear science, geology, evolution; rather, he believed they expanded one’s awe at God’s universe.
It was precisely this openness to science that stirred conflict. Roberts affirmed that death and change had existed on the earth long before Adam and Eve. He also entertained the possibility of pre-Adamic races—ideas that clashed sharply with Elder Joseph Fielding Smith’s insistence on a young earth and a literal reading of Genesis. The debate came to a head in Church councils of the late 1920s, where Roberts defended his manuscript against Smith’s objections.
Ultimately, the First Presidency declined to publish Roberts’s work. They counseled the Brethren to avoid making dogma of scientific questions and left the manuscript shelved. Because of this controversy, Roberts’s magnum opus remained unpublished for over six decades. It was only in the 1990s that BYU Studies, prepared the text for publication. This critical edition included Roberts’s full manuscript, historical essays, and extensive annotations, allowing readers to assess both his vision and the institutional tensions it provoked.
The delay underscores a broader dynamic in Mormon intellectual history: the balance between doctrinal authority and speculative theology, and the occasional unease when prophetic pronouncements appear to collide with scientific findings.
Although unpublished in Roberts’s lifetime, The Truth, The Way, The Life left a quiet but significant imprint. Circulating privately, it influenced subsequent LDS thinkers who sought a more philosophical articulation of Restoration doctrine. After its eventual publication, it has been hailed as the most systematic theological work ever produced by a general authority.
Roberts’s emphasis on uncreated intelligences, moral agency, and an infinite, law-governed cosmos remains foundational to Mormon metaphysics. His effort to harmonize science and revelation set a precedent for later Latter-day Saint scholars grappling with evolution, cosmology, and the philosophy of religion. And his closing focus on “The Life”—the imitation of Christ—anchors the treatise in practical discipleship rather than speculation alone.
Quotes:
“What science discovers helps us to realize the greatness and wonderfulness of this revelation in the new fragment of the revelation of God to Moses, wherein we are told that ‘there are many worlds,’ so many, that they are innumerable to man; ‘the heavens they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man. . . . Many worlds have passed away, by the word of God’s power; and as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come’ … and there is no end to God’s works!”
“As this work is concerned chiefly with man, it is of man’s mind, or man as an intelligence, that we shall here speak of him, and of his relationships to other intelligences of this and of other worlds. … The term ‘intelligence’ is descriptive of the thing to which it is applied. Intelligence (mind), or intelligences (minds), thus conceived, are conscious beings—conscious of self and of the not-self … ‘Intelligence is that which sees itself … both subject and object.’”
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June 28, 2023A little known study.
May 15, 2012
I received this book as a present a few years ago. I have the BYU Studies version. This version would likely be considered the more scholarly version. It contains both Roberts original wording and his final wording for the manuscript. The original wording is crossed out by having a line drawn through it. About 10 years before his death in 1933, Roberts sought to create a work that would circumscribe all knowledge into one complete whole. Roberts would primarily rely on the scientific knowledge of his day and LDS scripture to create his "masterwork." Roberts had hoped the book would be accepted by Church leaders and used as a priesthood manual. A committee of Church leaders did examine and discuss the manuscript. However, there was heated disagreement over some doctrinal issues raised in the manuscript (i.e. When does the spirit enter the body?, Did death exist before Adam?, Where did Adam come from?, Did pre-Adamites exists?, What exactly are intelligences?, etc.). Footnotes give information on the differences of opinion Church leaders held on these issues along with Roberts sometimes testy response to concerns expressed about his manuscript. I greatly enjoyed this book and would recommend. However, at almost 600 pages, it is not a short easy read.
December 28, 2009
This is a wonderful book with B. H. Roberts notations as he tried to make the book agreeable with Joseph Fielding Smith and other members of the Twelve who were appointed to approve Church Reading material. The book was owned by the Church and it was Elder Roberts hope that it would be used as a two year Priesthood manual. It was never approved essentially because it contains an acknowledgement of the possibility of pre-Adamites and Roberts would not back down on this item. I love the theology and historical information. This book was Roberts last book before he died of Diabetes. He started it when he was Mission President and then stayed on in New York after his release for some months while he finished the work. He felt this was his most important work and was to be in Theology what his Comprehensive History was for historical background and early years of Church History.
This book was fascinating to me and was slow reading, since I had to think about his unconventional points and in some cases re-read his reasoning. I confess I love this book.
This book was fascinating to me and was slow reading, since I had to think about his unconventional points and in some cases re-read his reasoning. I confess I love this book.
July 26, 2010
This was a good book. It takes a little to look past the paen verging on hyperbole that is characteristic of a lot of modernism, and the science is, of course, out of date by now.
But it is entertaining and enlightening to see the effort of a bright mind engaged in the attempt to circumscribe all knowledge---both revealed and scientific---into one great whole. And it is inspiring to see someone who believes so wholeheartedly that it can be done.
The overarching impression that this book leaves is one of the unyielding optimism of Mormon theology.
But it is entertaining and enlightening to see the effort of a bright mind engaged in the attempt to circumscribe all knowledge---both revealed and scientific---into one great whole. And it is inspiring to see someone who believes so wholeheartedly that it can be done.
The overarching impression that this book leaves is one of the unyielding optimism of Mormon theology.
September 8, 2009
Loved this book. Roberts takes a somewhat literal reading of the scriptures, an understanding of the revolutionary teachings of Joseph Smith, a desire to reconcile religion and science, and an ability with philosophical discourse, to bring us a great masterwork.
July 30, 2011
I actually read the BYU Studies edition, but didn;t see that as a possibility on this website. It was a really fun read. The introductory essays (most) were excellent. I especially enjoyed (and was surprised by) the essay on gender. Well done!
August 14, 2009
Lengthy but thought provoking.
April 4, 2011
It was nice to hear an interpretation easier to swallow than McConkie's.
December 2, 2018
What a lot of interesting material! In fact, it took most of the year to take it all in...but worth the time.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews