Russell Howes's Reviews > The Great Apostasy

I honestly don't love Elder Talmage's writing style that much when compared to more recent works by LDS authors. He cites himself a lot, especially in this work, there's not a lot of nuance or understanding for opposing points of view, but the work is a product of its time and a lot of the scholarly-ish work used as sources in Church instruction manuals comes from this time period, so you take what you can get.

I give this book four stars because of its historical value in the understanding of LDS religious scholarship, and for the clear outlining of the LDS view of the beginnings of the apostasy, which is very much watered down in current church literature. My favorite part of this book is the notes on the Papacy (especially the 8th-10th centuries) in the second-to-last chapter. That's why I bought the book in the first place--I remember reading it one Monday when I was 19 and found a copy in a meetinghouse library somewhere, I laughed and laughed, and when I saw a copy of this for a dollar at a thrift store 14 years later I decided it was time to read the whole thing. I'm glad I did.