Doctrine and Covenants
Week 28: Eternal marriage & plural marriage
Section 132; Official Declaration 1
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8 May 2025
Lesson Materials
Notes and slides will be posted after the class has been held.
Notes
Slides
Download PowerPoint slides with animation
Lesson video
Additional reading and links
Gospel Topics Essays on plural marriage. These articles, published by the Church with the help of LDS scholars, review the history and practice of plural marriage in 19th century:
“Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (an introductory essay).
“Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo” (on polygamy as revealed and practiced by Joseph Smith).
“Plural Marriage and Families in Early Utah” (how polygamy was practiced in the Utah period).
“The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage” (how the practice was discontinued).
Joseph Smith’s Polygamy is the website for Brian and Laura Hales’ book series on Joseph Smith and the establishment and practice of plural marriage in Nauvoo. The Hales are the most thorough and reliable scholars working on this subject. Works in the series include Brian’s three-volume scholarly examination of Joseph’s practice of plural marriage and Brian and Laura’s brief, one-volume book that summarizes his work for a lay audience.
Brian Hales, Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, Volume 1: History (Salt Lake City, Utah: Greg Kofford Books, 2013)
Brian Hales, Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, Volume 2: History (Salt Lake City, Utah: Greg Kofford Books, 2013)
Brian Hales, Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, Volume 3: Theology (Salt Lake City, Utah: Greg Kofford Books, 2013)
Joseph Smith’s Polygamy: Toward a Better Understanding (Salt Lake City, Utah: Greg Kofford Books, 2015)
Gregory L. Smith, “Polygamy, Prophets, and Prevarication: Frequently and Rarely Asked Questions about the Initiation, Practice, and Cessation of Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” FAIR (2005). Smith explores some of the difficult issues surrounding plural marriage, including Joseph Smith’s public denials that he was practicing it.
Gordon Irving, “The Law of Adoption: One Phase of the Development of the Mormon Concept of Salvation, 1830–1900,” BYU Studies 14, no. 3 (Spring 1974): 291–314. Irving’s article reviews the early Mormon custom of being sealed to prominent Church leaders, a practice President Wilford Woodruff did away with by revelation in 1894.