Fiona & Terryl
All Things New (2020)
Faith Matters
I make all things new, proclaimed the Lord. Regrettably, many are still mired in the past, in ways we have not recognized. In this book, Fiona and Terryl Givens trace the roots of our religious vocabulary, explore how a flawed inheritance compounds the wounds and challenges of a life devoted to discipleship, and suggest ways of reformulating our language in more healthy ways all in the hope that, as B. H. Roberts urged, we may all cooperate in the works of the Spirit to find a truer expression of a gospel restored.
The Christ Who Heals (2017)
Deseret Book
Mormonism is so rich in doctrine, so expansive in its teachings, that we may be too easily distracted from this one cardinal proposition: The Restoration recovered that Christ who is the most remarkable being in the history of religious thought. The Restoration radically reshapes our understanding of his character and role as it emerged in preexistent councils, where he positioned himself to be our spiritual Father and to reunite us with our Heavenly Family, committing himself with unparalleled devotion to the project of our return. The Restoration reclaims Christ’s Atonement as an act of healing. It reconstitutes us as whole beings by transmuting the damage and pain endured in life’s educative crucible into sanctifying suffering that expands our capacity to receive and give love. Then Jesus invites us to share in his work of healing and saving. The Restoration also reconstructs judgment and salvation: the first as a process of self-understanding and self-revelation that is merciful and formative, the second as an eternal process by which an infinitely devoted Healer will work tirelessly to draw us ever onward into eternal realms of belonging.
The Crucible of Doubt (2014)
Deseret Book
In writing about the nature of Faith, Augustine said that sometimes, our understanding cannot resolve a choice between alternatives, "because of an apparent equality of the motives for both sides. This is the state of one in doubt." In such a circumstance, where knowledge is insufficient to impel us toward belief or non-belief, "our understanding is determined by the will, which chooses to assent to one side definitely and precisely because of something which is enough to move the will, though not enough to move the understanding." Faith, in other words, is ultimately a choice. But the possibility of faith is influenced by the assumptions and paradigms that may constrain and shape one’s religious quest. As Daniel Dennett writes, "philosophy… is what you have to do until you figure out what questions you should have been asking in the first place." Genuine questions, to use Gadamer’s expression, entail risk, put our prejudices into play, and expose us to unknown consequences. This book invites us to approach our spiritual journey, by embracing that risk, and by reconsidering the value of doubt as a catalyst rather than an obstacle to faith.
The God Who Weeps (2012)
Deseret Book
In this personal account, the authors survey five fundamentals about the universe that our place in it inherent in the LDS faith tradition. Woven together into a coherent tapestry, they constitute a holistic narrative that challenges conventional Christian theologies, addressing the questions where we came from, why we are here, and what might await us in the "undiscovered country."
God is a personal entity, having a heart that beats in sympathy with human hearts, feeling our joy and sorrowing over our pain.
Humans lived as spirit beings in the presence of God before we were born into this mortal life.
Mortality is an ascent, not a fall, and we carry infinite potential into a world of sin and sorrow.
God has the desire and the power to unite and elevate the entire human family in a kingdom of heaven.
That Heaven will consist of those relationships that matter most to us in the here and now.