Review
Title: Revelation (Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants)
Author: Janiece Johnson
Publisher: BYU Maxwell Institute & Deseret Book
Genre: Religious Non-fiction
Year Published: 2024
Number of Pages: 143
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-8425-0135-4
Price: $12.99
Reviewed by Conor Hilton for the Association of Mormon Letters
Janiece Johnson’s Revelation, part of the Maxwell Institute’s Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants series, argues that the experience and meaning of revelation are central to religious life. Johnson presents accessible insights drawn from her study of sections of the Doctrine and Covenants, related scholarship, and personal experience. The main thrust of her work is to show how revelation operates in both historical scripture and contemporary lived experience, and how individuals can better understand and engage with revelation by acknowledging its complexities.
The book is rooted primarily in the following sections of the Doctrine & Covenants: sections 1, 46, 20, 76, 138, 28, 43, 9, 6, 8, 50, 51, 52, 54, 58, 60, 64, 98, 101, 121. The sections are grouped thematically to highlight different facets of the theology of revelation, rather than explored chronologically or numerically.
Johnson opens by framing the book and the Restoration with her central argument: revelation is abundant and available, but requires effort to receive and understand. She terms this approach a theology of “revelatory abundance” (2), which shapes her perspective throughout the book. Johnson contends that the promise of the Restoration and its scripture is active, ongoing communication from God, and that our responsibility is to develop the ability to receive, interpret, and respond to that communication. This central notion underpins Johnson’s later discussions, such as her critical inquiry into the experiential model of the “burning bosom” and the phenomenon of divine silence.
Chapter 5, “The Tyranny of a Burning Bosom,” digs into section 9 and the ways that cultural and other prioritization of the “burning bosom” model of revelation prevents us as a people from fully receiving the revelatory abundance that God offers. Johnson roots her scriptural analysis in lived experience and prophetic interpretation, drawing out other ways that we might approach revelation and some of the dangers of a single model. This chapter contains some of Johnson’s most unique analyses of the topic.
Similarly, Johnson’s insistent belief in revelatory abundance leads to a compelling and generative approach to God’s silence. Johnson draws on Adam Miller, Jeffrey R. Holland, and others to suggest that what may seem to be “silence” is not exclusively a negative, empty space, but instead may be an invitation, a quiet comforting, a presence. This approach to finding revelation abounding, even in the very site where it is initially perceived to be absent, is the culmination, in my view, of Johnson’s theological framing of revelatory abundance.
While I am still longing for something that treats the Doctrine and Covenants like the Brief Theological Introductions to the Book of Mormon, the Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants series offers applicable insights that can inform your lived religious experience. For folks interested in some curated and thoughtful insights to the topic of revelation, rooted in the Doctrine and Covenants, Janiece Johnson’s Revelation is worth your time.
