I Don't Have a Testimony of the History of the Church (2004 FAIR Conference CD)

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Davis Bitton, The Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (FAIR), 2004.

Some of the worlds leading historians on LDS history are believing Latter-day Saints. Bitton acknowledges that early LDS leaders were human like the rest of us, but that there is nothing in LDS history that would lead to the unavoidable conclusion that the Church is false. The cure for bad history is better history, and faithful LDS historians have produced some of the best LDS history. Bitton also argues that a testimony of the Church is based on Christ—not on the history of the Church.

Davis Bitton is a retired University of Utah history professor. After serving a mission in France, he graduated from BYU and then received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University. He has taught at the University of Texas and the University of California at Santa Barbara, and served for ten years as assistant Church historian. Dr. Bitton is co-author (with Leonard J. Arrington) of The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints and Saints Without Halos: The Human Side of Mormon History. He compiled A Guide to Mormon Diaries and Autobiographies. His most recent books are Images of the Prophet Joseph Smith and George Q. Cannon: A Biography.

Like other people, Davis has different interests. He has served in a bishopric and on the stake high council. He may not hold the worldÆs record for longevity as a gospel doctrine teacher, but this has been his Church calling for many, many years. Insiders will recognize that this implies, or should imply, a certain level of familiarity with the standard works. His interest in early modern Europe resulted in a series of upper-division university courses, papers at conventions, book reviews, articles, and a book entitled The French Nobility in Crisis, 1560-1640. He is an accomplished concert pianist, having studied in Paris under the formidable Madame Dumesnil and in California under the equally demanding Wladimir Kochanski. Davis and his wife, JoAn, have ten children and over fifty grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

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