Review
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Title: Search, Ponder, and Pray: A Guide to the Gospels
Author: Julie M. Smith
Publisher: Kofford Books
Genre: Contemporary Studies in Scripture
Year of Publication: 2014
Number of Pages: 422
Binding: Paper
ISBN13: 978-1589586710
Price: $27.95
Reviewed by Julie J. Nichols for the Association for Mormon Letters
The Sunday School curriculum for 2015, in case you didn’t know, is the New Testament. Years ago—during another year when this was the text that was “up” in the cycle–a University of Utah Institute teacher whose name I can’t remember, but who was the Sunday School teacher in the student ward I attended then, made the life-changing point, during one of the bejillion lessons on the New Testament I’d heard in my life, that “everything Jesus did except the Atonement we are designed to do as human beings. We can do everything Jesus did, except the Atonement.”
It wasn’t instant, but the impact of this assertion *was* life-changing. I wanted to know *how.* How can we, mere humans, futzy, clog-minded, stuttering things that we are, heal our neighbors? comfort the chronically ill, make the blind to see—raise the dead? embody power and wisdom to change people’s lives? I wondered, then; some time later, when it was urgent that I come to terms with the consequences of some of my choices, it became imperative to find out. I pulled out the New Testament again. Who knows what the curriculum was that year? I didn’t care; I just had a question about Jesus that the New Testament seemed the best place to find answers for. I began to read with that question uppermost in my mind and heart. “How did Jesus do what he did? How can I?”
A long time passed. Some tentative answers appeared immediately. New ones arose. The quest took me places I had not imagined before it started. It even took me away from activity in the church for a while (I’m back; I’ve been a Relief Society president and sent three sons on missions). Now it’s the basis of a longish set of pieces I’m working on, some fiction, some nonfiction, for the project which will fill my upcoming sabbatical half-year from UVU. The answers, and the questions, have evolved far beyond that beginning. But I have an unshakeable testimony that if a reader goes into the New Testament, or any book of scripture, or any book, or any text of any kind, driven by specific questions whose answers are urgently sought, those answers will come. Because of that question, the New Testament changed my life.
Now I teach Gospel Doctrine in my ward, looking with my ward members at this set of documents, canonized by a long process, that has given rise to beliefs, behaviors, denominations, and traditions that rule the Western world. The official Sunday School manual is a good foundation on which to begin our study. But I know there’s more. There’s always more. Kofford Books’ new title, *Search, Ponder, and Pray,* by Julie M. Smith, is just the ticket for beginning to investigate this “more.” Her entire premise is that we need to be asking questions, not settling for what people I know like to call “Sunday School answers.” This bottom-line assumption makes the book the highly commendable guide that it is.
In the preface to the first edition, published ten years ago, Smith said that the “one deficiency that pervades most commentaries [is] that they tell you what to think. In contrast, this book tell you what to think *about*” (xi). In the preface to this (the second) edition, she adds, “I didn’t want to present…insights as if they were tablets handed down the mountain, but rather as well-reasoned theories that deserve to be considered but might ultimately be rejected….[Every] issue is presented as a question, so that the autonomy of the reader to accept or to reject is always foremost” (ix). After a valuable introduction (more about this in a moment), she presents the four Gospels: Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John (more about this sequence in a moment, too), beginning each of her chapters with a series of overview questions—no answers! Then she moves through each Gospel chapter by chapter, verse by verse, providing questions based on scholarly discoveries and theories, references to the Joseph Smith translations of various verses, and other information any intelligent reader might be grateful for—with the caveat that any intelligent reader should wish to investigate the implications of each of these for her- or himself.
The format takes a bit of getting used to. I kept thinking, at first, that there must be answers somewhere—in the back? At the end of each chapter? But no. For example, in the section on Matthew 4: 1-11 (the temptations of Christ), the fourth entry suggests readers note that “the order of the temptations differs in Matthew [4:3-10] and Luke (Luke 4:3-13)” (135), and asks, “Do you think one of the writers changed the order to make a point? Why else might the orders differ?” I found myself adding, “What point would Matthew, a faithful Jew writing to Jews, have wanted to make, that would have been different from the point that Luke, a Gentile, might want to make? What’s *literary* about the order in either book? Could the fact that Luke was written later than Mark have anything to do with it?” Smith doesn’t provide answers to her own questions, let alone mine. She merely indicates the kinds of questions good readers should come up with, and lets them do something about it on their own.
She gives extra weight to some of her questions with a bullet point. But these are unobtrusive, not boldfaced or given longer treatment. The reader is free to raise an eyebrow and move on to another question at any time.
Smith does provide references for the scholarly discoveries and theories she brings up. In her introduction, she does lay some groundwork for her reasoning, with a section on “thinking about the Scriptures,” including statements by Church leaders and a subsection on the Joseph Smith translation. A section called “Preparing to Study the Gospels” offers information about the “History and traditions” of scripture interpretation; “Some translation issues,” and “Literary techniques” to be found in these texts. She also discusses the (limited but clear) value of using the Bible dictionary in LDS editions of the scriptures, and life in ancient times. She also clearly explains the format for her book, and reassures readers that not being able to answer every question is normal. Usual. And she refers to D&C 9:7-9 (doesn’t quote it, bless her! You have to look it up!): “Behold…you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But… you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right…you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me.” Don’t take anything in this book as a rigid directive, she seems to be saying. Ask the questions. Then see what happens.
The Gospel of Mark comes first in this guide, says Smith, because “most scholars believe (but we cannot prove) that Mark was written first. The best way to test this hypothesis is to read Mark first and then to compare Matthew and Luke…[and anyway,] it can be beneficial to read the Gospels in a new order” (xxviii).
So this isn’t a book full of answers. It’s not even a book full of *all* the questions. What it’s full of is information, direction, and permission to wander where all that can lead. Like all the offerings so far in the “Contemporary Studies in Scripture” series from Kofford, it’s an invaluable resource for the contemporary scholar, the questioner who knows the Internet and Google and doesn’t mind—in fact urgently seeks—a friendly, faithful hand on the arduous, fascinating, joyful journey to truth.