Review
———-
Title: To Be A Friend of Christ: The Life of Marion D. Hanks
Author: Richard D. Hanks
Publisher: Signature Books
Genre: Religious Non-fiction/Biography
Year Published: 2024
Number of Pages: 591
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-56085-472-2
Price: $39.95
Reviewed by Conor Hilton for the Association of Mormon Letters
To Be a Friend of Christ: The Life of Marion D. Hanks by Richard D. Hanks is an exhaustive, detailed description of the life of a man clearly devoted to serving God and his fellow humans. Hanks uses his own proximity to his subject and access to countless documents to describe the life of Marion Duff Hanks.
The book is organized into sections that move roughly chronologically, but also periodically are grouped thematically. This organization allows readers to jump around and drop in on topics that they are particularly interested in (Duff’s work with and advocacy for single adults, the Boy Scouts of America, or humanitarian service, for example). However, it does occasionally make for some difficulty in tracking where and when things occurred–some of this is perhaps inevitable when working with the life of someone as prolific and widely engaged as Duff.
The truthfulness of the book’s title, To Be a Friend of Christ, comes through in spades reading the book. Having finished, I am persuaded that Duff was truly committed to being a friend of Christ and in living out that commitment by being a friend to as many people as he could. Hanks includes countless anecdotes and letters, as well as accounts from friends, family, and strangers whom Duff encountered throughout his life, which were transformed in some way by their connection, however brief it may have been.
Secondary to the book’s witness of Duff’s kind heart is the insight the book offers to a variety of changes and elements of church teachings, practices, and structures. I was particularly interested in these elements, and for my own preferences, would’ve preferred a book that was more focused on them and Duff’s role in all of that. But that would be quite a different project than the one that Hanks embarked on. Reading about some of the changes to Temple Square (specifically Duff’s role in bringing the Christus there) was quite interesting and provided new information to me.
While To Be a Friend of Christ: The Life of Marion D. Hanks is plain in its prose and committed to comprehensiveness, sometimes at the expense of clarity, the book offers a clear vision of Marion D. Hanks as a disciple of Christ, striving to be a friend to all. The book is worthwhile for those wanting to know more about Duff and to read anecdotes of the lives he touched, to be inspired by who he was, as well as those curious about some of the changes in the church that took place over Duff’s lifetime and the ways that the bureaucracy of the church functions. I hope to be as devoted to serving those around me as Duff was to serving those around him. And what could be a more fitting tribute to him than a book that inspires others to do the same?