Review
Title: Living Oracles: Law and the Latter-day Saint Tradition
Author: Nathan B. Oman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Genre: Academic
Year Published: 2026
Number of Pages: 328
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780197825815
Price: $49.99
Reviewed by Conor Hilton for the Association of Mormon Letters
Living Oracles: Law and the Latter-day Saint Tradition by Nathan B. Oman once again demonstrates that there is no one out there offering the type of scholarship and analysis that he provides. Oman’s book is characterized by careful, sensitive close readings of Latter-day Saint practice, alongside scripture, teachings, and history. The book is a fitting companion to Oman’s two volumes on Latter-day Saint Law from Greg Kofford books last year, differing in the ways that it situates Restorationist thinking and practice within the broader context of legal thought and uses the law to reflect on ideas important to Mormonism.
Oman discusses Latter-day Saint thinking on the law in one of the chapters, offering a clear-eyed, nuanced view of competing strands of thought within the tradition. He concludes the section, writing:
“Ultimately, the Latter-day Saint tradition is conflicted on the extent of one’s moral obligation to obey the law. At times, Latter-day Saints have forcefully rejected the legitimacy of secular law and insisted that only God and his laws can rightfully claim final authority. However, there is an alternative strand of Latter-day Saint thought grounded in the weakness and vulnerability of the Mormon community that emphasizes the obligation to obey secular law as a way of forestalling official hostility.” (69)
This precision and clarity characterize Oman’s approach throughout. He is devoted to what the texts he has found say and believes in the value of digging through the contradictions and inconsistencies (perceived and actual) to arrive at some coherent view of what remains. Here, Oman is able to give a positive case for these two opposing positions, offering a compelling moral rationale for the obligation to secular law that challenged some of my own preconceived notions and assumptions about such an obligation.
In one of the latter chapters, Oman builds on some of his compelling, rigorous reading of Latter-day Saint sealing practices to discuss marriage and law within Latter-day Saint thought. In his discussion of some changes occurring under President David O. McKay, he writes, “When forced to choose between insisting on some clear model of family relationships for the hereafter and being able to perform mass temple work, the church chose mass temple work” (185). Again, Oman’s matter-of-fact analysis and clear prose are refreshing. Here, he identifies an instance of competing priorities for the church and how they did not choose “some clear model of family relationships for the hereafter”. Recognizing the amount of uncertainty and ambiguity and where precisely it is found concerning life after death within Latter-day Saint thought is incredibly valuable, and one small piece of Oman’s work is helping in that respect. The marriage chapters are overflowing with other fascinating insights and tidbits, but I’ll let you all discover them on your own!
Perhaps the single most surprising and new (to me) chapter is “The Rise and Fall of the Latter-day Saint Judiciary.” Here, Oman discusses church courts, where they came from, how they operated, what their purpose(s) seem to be, and how they transformed and declined over time. I knew so little of what was discussed here and think there is so much more thinking to do based on the insights that Oman provides—notably for how we talk about and think about church discipline in current discourse and what some alternative ways of thinking might be found in this history that Oman digs into. And, what transformations should be held onto as we move forward through time?
Anyone interested in the ways law and Latter-day Saint thinking might intersect will be deeply rewarded by Nathan B. Oman’s Living Oracles: Law and the Latter-day Saint Tradition. Readers who value close and careful readings of religious traditions, practices, and texts, to discern what those religions and religious people value and think, would be hard-pressed to find a better model than Oman’s thinking and writing. May we all be able to have a little more open-eyed look at our tradition and what brought us here as we consider how to live it.