Review
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Title: Stay Thou Nearby: Reflections on the 1978 Revelation on the Priesthood
Authors: Carol Lawrence-Costley, Ahmad S. Corbitt, Edward Dube, Tracy K. Browning
Publisher: Deseret Book
Genre: Religious Non-fiction
Year Published: 2023
Number of Pages: 112
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-63993-181-1
Price: $12.99
Reviewed by Conor Hilton for the Association of Mormon Letters
Stay Thou Nearby: Reflections on the 1978 Revelation on the Priesthood is a brief book that offers insight into how some Black members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints think about Official Declaration Two and the preceding priesthood and temple restrictions. Four General Authorities of the Church share their reflections here, two women and two men.
Stay Thou Nearby is not a historical or doctrinal exploration of the 1978 revelation on the priesthood or the priesthood and temple restrictions. It is also not a work of scholarship about the priesthood revelation. Instead, the book is a collection of four short essays, or ‘reflections,’ one from each of the contributors. The reflections are a blend of personal experience and life lessons, particularly within a spiritual/religious context, based on that experience.
I, probably unsurprisingly, have very different thinking about the lessons of the 1978 revelation on the priesthood than is reflected in these essays. For some, that disparity may result in frustration. However, for me, the gap between my thinking and the thinking reflected in these essays was provocative. Stay Thou Nearby is illuminating for how what is likely a mainstream Black member of the Church thinks, something I’m particularly interested in given the demographics of my current ward.
The book is short and a quick read. The stories shared raise many questions about how to most responsibly engage with the historical reality of the priesthood and temple restriction and the subsequent 1978 revelation. I don’t have good answers to those questions but was glad to have another opportunity to think about them, prompted by different perspectives than my own.
Stay Thou Nearby: Reflections on the 1978 Revelation on the Priesthood is ideal for folks who value knowing what mainstream, semi-authoritative thinking is on difficult questions. Those looking for rigorous scholarly engagement, deep historical analysis, or explorations of questions and challenges should look elsewhere. Stay Thou Nearby offers faithful, personal reflections on what the 1978 revelation on the priesthood means in the real lives of Black Latter-day Saints, and those experiences and that meaning are worth listening to.