Review
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Title: Divine Law (Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants)
Author: Justin Collings
Publisher: BYU Maxwell Institute & Deseret Book
Genre: Religious Non-fiction
Year Published: 2024
Number of Pages: 119
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-8425-0131-6
Price: $12.99
Reviewed by Conor Hilton for the Association of Mormon Letters
Justin Collings’ Divine Law, part of the Maxwell Institute’s Themes in the Doctrine and Covenant series, is driven by a “simple” proposition–that “divine law is inseparable from divine love” (7). Collings explores a variety of facets of this idea with aplomb and pizzazz, weaving in literary epigraphs from Wordsworth, Chesterton, Spenser, Tennyson, and others.
The prose of Collings’ volume is bombastic and enthusiastic, largely in delightful ways for this reader. The prose stylings breathe a surprising life and vitality into the subject of “divine law,” and help to convey Collings’ own love for the subject, which furthers his insistence that law and love are the same. Here’s a taste of what I mean: “The Doctrine and Covenants, the great compendium of Joseph’s canonized revelations, is emphatically–even exuberantly–a book of divine law” (7). Collings uses vivid, dramatic adverbs and adjectives throughout the book, alongside polysyllabic nouns (as evidenced here), in a way that, for some, will likely feel over-the-top, but seems clear to me as signaling Collings’ sincere enthusiasm for his subject (and we could all use a little more unabashed enthusiasm, don’t you think?).
The foundation of Divine Law is the assertion that divine law and divine love are inseparable, which Collings states explicitly. He continues, “In Christ’s economy, law is not the antithesis of grace but a medium through which grace abounds” (7). This idea of law as a medium of grace is central to how Collings frames the entanglement of law and love. Collings draws on a wide range of restoration scripture to demonstrate this point, offering fairly persuasive evidence.
One of the book’s chapters tackles what Collings terms “misreadings” of Section 130, concerning blessings being tied to obedience of laws. One of Collings’ ideas that addresses these is functionally an extension of his position that law is a “medium through which grace abounds.” Collings writes, “Not only do God’s blessings surpass our obedience; they precede it. The laws on which all blessings are predicated constitute a blessing in their own right–a blessing that antedates any obedience on our part” (43). Here, the argument is two-fold–blessings come prior to sufficient obedience to ‘earn’ them, and the laws are themselves blessings, or a grace. I am glad to see Collings address this head-on, even if I wish there had been a bit more serious close reading of that section and grappling with why it feels so natural and logical to ‘misread’ it.
Later in the book, Collings offers a tantalizing reading of the law of consecration. He says, “Although the revelations never make the equivalence explicit, the context of [section 105]–and the tone and tenor of many others–suggest that the law of the celestial kingdom is the law of consecration. It is the law that crowns and comprehends all others” (62). As someone drawn to and fascinated by the law of consecration, I was obviously intrigued by this and wanted more! That, I suppose, is evidence of the book functioning as intended, offering a new way to approach a core theme in the Doctrine and Covenants that provokes further study and investigation on my own.
Collings’ Divine Law presents a straightforward, compelling thesis that many readers will find inspiring, and does so with vigor and vim.