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The decades framing the turn of the twentieth century constituted a period of progressive optimism, of increaseing faith in science and technology, and character-building educationâ€"vividly illustrated in the founding of Christian Science, for example, and in the Latter-day Saint magazine, the Improvement Era. In Keeping with the times, it is not surprising the former professor of chemistry and university president John A. Widtse was called to the LDS Quorum of Twelve Apostles in 1921. An ingeritor and promoter of "reaonable" religion, his popular book, Joseph Smith as Scientist, and his influential LDS Melchizedek priesthood manual (later released as a book), Rational Theology, underscored his and other Mormon leaders' positivist assumtions about the worldâ€"that science was good, that Mormonism would be porven true, and, drawing from Herber Spencer's application of evoluton to ethics, that society would be perfected. This book summarizes and embraces, science and Mormonism. -- Book Description
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