President Packer's "The Law and the Light" Available Online

In 1988 (then) Elder Packer gave the keynote address at BYU as part of a series of symposia on the Book of Mormon. "The Law and the Light" is notable for its extended attack on evolution--the most significant one by a General Authority since Elder Bruce R. McConkie's "The Seven Deadly Heresies". (Back when it was an active blog, I collected President Packer's statements about evolution and gave some analysis at Mormons and Evolution).

Although the speech was published in, The Book of Mormon: Jacob through Words of Mormon, To learn with joy, along with other papers from the symposium, copies of the talk could be a little difficult to find, possibly due to the introductory statement: "The article may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the author."

That is no longer a problem because the speech is now available online at BYU's Digital Collections.

Background Note: Although he gave few details, in a Sunstone Symposium presentation Duane Jeffery said that it was originally decided that "The Law and the Light" would not be published. However, since it was the keynote address publication was ultimately permitted, along with a disclaimer as to its non-authoritative status.

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