Book Review by B. Kent Harrison. Both Things Are True, by Kate Holbrook. (Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Brigham Young University. 2023.) 151 pages.
This charming little book was recommended to me by Valerie Hudson. It consists of a brief Prologue by Rosalynde Franklin Welch; an illustrated Interview by the author herself, dated 4 October 2018, produced by Nollie Haws and originally published by the LDS Women Project; five essays by the author; and an Epilogue by Samuel Morris Brown, husband of the author. The biographical sketch of Holbrook, found on the back flap of the cover, reads: “KATE HOLBROOK (1972-2022). Kate Holbrook was a leading voice in the study of Latter-day Saint women and Latter-day foodways. She held a B.A. from Brigham Young University, an MTS from Harvard Divinity School, and a Ph.D. from Boston University. Kate was a specialist in Women’s History. She was Managing Historian of Women’s History and Academic Outreach Director at the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. With her colleagues, Kate coedited ground-breaking collections of Latter-day Saint women’s history. She enjoyed reading. cooking, gardening, and taking walks with her husband and three children.”
The reader will undoubtedly catch her/his breath, as I did, upon reading the dates and past tense of this sketch. In fact, Kate died of eye cancer in August 2022.
The thesis of this book is that life can be lived joyously, irrespective of its happiness’s, sadness’s, and trials, thanks to the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Melissa Inouye’s book Crossings, her tone changed markedly downward after she was diagnosed with cancer and I wondered if Kate Holbrook’s would as well. I searched the text for the date the cancer was first diagnosed but found only vague statements from her husband which suggest the cancer may have been known for years. However, I found Kate’s tone remarkably upbeat.
In her interview, she tells of the desertion of her mother by her father six weeks after she was born (in Santa Barbara, California) accompanied by an eviction from their apartment with only two days’ notice. Ward members came and quietly moved her, toothbrush, pictures on the wall, and all. Although Kate could not have been aware of it as a baby, she says, “I’ve known the goodness of this Church from before I could remember.”
Kate’s mother taught school for a living. At an unspecified date her grandmother, her mother, and Kate moved to Utah, near BYU. Aside from the lack of a father and siblings, she says it was a good life. She loved to cook and her grandma taught her to bake. They all loved BYU sports and went to games or watched them on TV.
Although it is not explicitly stated, I have the impression that the proximity of BYU fostered Kate’s love of education. Her family couched the importance of an education in terms of “if something goes wrong you need to get an education so you can support yourself.” That provided motivation, but she found as she took classes that she loved education. She majored in English, minored in history, and then came a call to serve a mission in Russia (early 1990s.) This would affect her choice of major as she graduated with a double major in English and Russian literature. She served her mission in Samara and loved it, having both Russian and Ukrainian companions. When asked what Russian people’s attitudes were toward the Church, she answered immediately that they were influenced by Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet, where Sherlock Holmes makes his first appearance. She says that they were “a little” interested in religion. Those who were more serious often had a grandmother who had taught them religion secretly.
After she graduated from BYU, Kate went to Boston University to study Russian literature. Just two days after moving to Boston she met her future husband. After a year and a half at Boston University, she got married and transferred to the Harvard Divinity School. When she became pregnant, the school held her slot for a year.
Following Harvard the family moved to Provo, where Kate continued her dissertation on religion and food. Kate put together a writers’ group, which included Jill Mulvay Derr of the Church History Department. When Jill retired, Kate took her place and was driven to do research on Latter-Day Saint women. As such she became a co-editor of The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, as well as At the Pulpit, which is now part of the Church’s Gospel Library.
Kate testified of her love of the community found in Latter-Day Saint congregations, both the community among members taking care of each other’s needs, and the community with Jesus Christ, “I don’t think the community works without Heavenly Father and Jesus, and modern revelation, and scripture.”
Kate admits her experience in Church history has influenced her own faith and how she approaches challenging issues. She acknowledges our church history can cause real pain for some people, but stresses the Church isn’t hiding anything. The early members were human, and we can learn much from studying them. Our history can be a source of power and strength. If you are not bothered by history, then, she says, “God bless you.” But if you are bothered by something, especially if it has caused a rift between you and the Spirit, then it is incumbent on you to do some digging. She emphasizes the importance of going to reputable sources, noting shallow work can lead one astray.
Kate cautions us to always be open to truth. As part of her willingness to accept truths from outside the gospel, she quotes French philosopher Simone Weil, “All wrong translations, all absurdities in geometry problems, all clumsiness of style and faulty connection of ideas…all such things are due to the fact that thought has seized upon some idea too hastily and being thus prematurely blocked is not open to truth.” She comments that the human tendency to grab onto a definition too quickly or oversimplify, often leads to major sins like bigotry.
Kate said she sees God’s hand in her work and that she was constantly guided in what she should work on and where to find the proper sources. It was hard work but she had a lot of tender mercies come her way. She was grateful for all of the work that preceded hers and felt her arriving on the scene at just that time was fortuitous because of all the work she could do on women’s history in particular.
Kate acknowledged there are huge differences in women’s experiences globally. As an example, she mentions a tradition in Sierra Leone that requires a woman walk behind and lower than a man because woman was taken from Adam’s rib. For cultures like that, it’s a huge shift to join the Church and have a woman feel equal to a man.
Kate talks about the sharing of responsibilities between her and her husband as they both work. An interesting quote: “…there’s a lot you have no control over. For me, it makes the things in my life that are beautiful more poignantly beautiful, and it gives perspective. I don’t know how long the good things that I enjoy are going to be around.”
She compared fitting her personal devotion into a very busy schedule to her dentist who suggested instead of flossing more regularly. She read scriptures more frequently after that and recognized what a gift they are. She urges the reader to spend time in prayer, reading, and staring into space.
The book’s title has many meanings. One meaning is that we can accept the idea that the Church is the only true church while also accepting truths in other churches. Another meaning is that we accept all truth, including both scientific and religious truth. Another meaning is that while revelation can be both slow, heavy work, it can also light and lift us through the darkness. Another more counter-intuitive meaning is that forgiveness, as Jesus teaches, is the only way to ensure healing from the wrongs people do to us. At the same time, we do not excuse or forget the act; that is something the perpetrator must deal with. Another meaning is that when it comes to the Church, both of the following are true. 1) The Church is true because it contains eternal truths and saving ordinances, and it teaches us to embrace all truth. 2) Quoting Elder Uchtdorf, “The Restoration is an ongoing process…. the Church is true because it is…living…it is becoming true as it grows and adapts…to new challenges.”
Moving from the interview to the essays, Kate examines the “contraries” of the true church, revelation, housework, forgiveness and accountability, and legacy.
Essay #1: I Belong to the True and Living Church
A young friend who had been a member of the Church for two years and accepted its teachings asked Kate about the Church’s claim to be the only true Church. Isn’t there truth in other churches? How to explain to others? To oneself?
Kate observes that it’s an excellent question. What, for example, does it mean to claim to be the true Church in view of its somewhat messy past? Kate sort of sidesteps the issue, but notes that the true church claim can feel at times less than loving. It can seem exclusive, especially if we are arrogantly boasting about ourselves. There is truth in other religions and we need to acknowledge that. There is truth in science, there is truth all around us and, quoting President Russell M. Nelson, “There is no truth that has ever been revealed that we do not believe.”
However, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true church because it is the only church that contains the fullness of the gospel as revealed by the Savior. It is a living church because we receive continuing revelation, which is discussed more in the next chapter, and because members form living relationships. Kate emphasizes the Church is true because it brings us into enduring relationship with God and with other people. Members have a commission to live the truths found in the church and as they do, they continually make the Church true… There is great beauty in the church. I believe that both things are true: the Church is true, and it is living. It is perpetually becoming true…we find God in doing good for other people.”
But to sum up, she simply believes it is true. She has studied its history. She accepts the fact that its leaders receive revelation. She has seen priesthood power. She loves the Church.
Taking Kate’s advice, I pondered the beauty found in the Church. There is great pathos and heartbreak in Genesis when God calls Abraham to sacrifice “thine only son”, in a magnificently understated passage. Or the loneliness and hope found in the lyrics and illustrations of Eliza R. Snow’s hymn, “O My Father,” illustrated by famed Utah artist John Hafen - we are separated from God and we hope to return to his presence. (You can see the paintings by looking in the online August 1976 Ensign.)
Essay #2: Revelation is a Process
Kate begins by considering Joseph Smith’s first vision, and notes that one can get revelation even if one or one’s parents are uneducated or poor. Those things don’t matter; Joseph Smith simply read his scriptures and prayed to know God’s will. Note that he didn’t need the Priesthood to do this. Neither did his mother. We can do the same thing, whether we are female or male.
In discussing the process of revelation, Kate notes that her study of Church history has showed her that our leaders learn “by study and also by faith.” Revelation is a process. Many of President Nelson’s rapid changes had actually been under consideration for years. The 1978 revelation on the priesthood took a long time to come forth. President Kimball had actually been praying about it since his youngest years. It took a struggle before he was able to pronounce the revelation.
The author gives two more examples of how revelation is a process. Aurelia S. Rogers noticed the rowdiness of the boys in her church meetings, she wrote Relief Society President Eliza R. Snow about her concerns, and President Snow presented them to Acting Church President John Taylor. He in turn took them to the Apostles, who discussed and prayed about it. Eventually this led to the formation of the Primary. President Rogers described how she felt after accepting the call to organize it. She was carried away in the Spirit for three days, experiencing a feeling of “untold happiness.” Interestingly, those feelings did not last. She began to feel depressed and unworthy of such blessings. But this is only to be expected in a world of evil as well as good. She went on to be the first president of the Primary.
Her second example is that of Ardeth Kapp, just recently deceased, who was called as Young Women’s General President in the 1980s and who immediately began receiving revelation. At the time, women did not interact much with the First Presidency. But her perseverance resulted in programs greatly beneficial to the young women of the Church. But implementing change takes time and she experienced delays and frustrations. It took two years for a committee of men and women to develop the Personal Progress program.
Kate discusses how one feels when having trouble receiving personal revelation. It helps to realize that the process need not be perfect. She notes some days are better than others. Kate references James J. Christensen’s painting The Responsible Woman, which has meant a lot to her. The woman is flying through a purple sky She holds a candle to light her way. She carries certain things, strapped to her body so they won’t fall off—a baby, a rope, a musical instrument. To Kate the candle is personal revelation, lighting the darkness. She sees the woman as herself, carrying the responsibilities of mothering four children and running a household. Personal revelation guides her.
Essay #3: Housework is a Crucible of Discipleship
The New Testament example is that of Martha, who is busy with meals while her sister Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet (Luke 10:38-41). Martha complains and asks that Mary help her, but Jesus’ answer seems to be sort of a mild reproof. He says that Mary has chosen “the good part.” This is perplexing; it seems to devalue Martha. Yet she has opened her home to Him, is serving Him. She has great faith, as her testimony when Lazarus died shows (John 11:21-27).
Are we to believe that housework is inferior to the life of the mind or the spirit? Kate remarks that many women have felt that, based on this example, and consequently have themselves felt inferior. But this cannot be the case. Perhaps, Martha was so caught up in providing a perfect experience, she overlooked the fact Jesus came to enjoy her presence, not just the meal. Serving people, in any capacity is what the gospel is all about. Jesus Himself did housework. He cooked fish for His disciples, and He made sure people were fed, as with the miracles of feeding the multitudes. Acts 6 describes the calling of seven men to serve tables.
Kate proposes a “theology” of housework. It can be a religious practice bringing us closer to God and other people. It is a crucible, a teacher of hard truths, and an antidote to perfectionism. When Kate cleans the cultural hall in her chapel, she feels like she never does enough because it is so large, and she doesn’t like to do chores in her home because she can’t do them perfectly. We feel inadequate because other people do things better than we do. Kate elaborates extensively on these questions.
A major consideration is the gendered nature of housework. Kate laments, “Gendered roles that rigidly assign all housework to women are a primary context for the exploitation and marginalization of women over the centuries. In Virginia Woolf’s astute thought experiment, housework is a major reason we don’t have the writings of Shakespeare’s sister, for instance.” It is easier to get a male scholar to contribute to a journal than a female scholar because of housework. Even today men do less housework than women. Kate goes a step beyond this and considers when forgiveness might be necessary and concludes the chapter by discussing gratitude.
Essay #4: Forgiving and Remembering
Kate describes her first sacrament meeting in Russia as a new missionary. When she walked into the room, a bust of Lenin sat on the podium, but before the meeting started an elder took it down and replaced it with a picture of Jesus. It set her thinking. We are to forgive wrongs done to us, but at the same time justice demands that wrongdoers must be held accountable. Both things are true. Do we forgive Lenin, who was responsible for millions of deaths? Well, yes. That’s easy for us; he didn’t affect us and others could explore justice. A harder case. We once had a Chinese graduate student, an older man, with whom I discussed the gospel. I made an attempt to discuss forgiveness with him, for wrongs done him by Chairman Mao. But he said that, although he was an educated man, he had been forced to live in a cowshed and to plow the fields like an ox. How does one answer that? I had no answer for him.
Forgiving and forgetting have already been briefly discussed above. There are other stories about forgiving that are quite stark. One was told by Madison Sowell in a BYU devotional. A man was driving with his family when they were hit by a drunk driver, killing the wife and daughter. The man reported that as he approached the driver and could smell the liquor, he had the overwhelming impression that he needed to forgive the man, and so he did. Years later he was called to be a bishop, and thought, how could he counsel ward members to forgive if he hadn’t been able to on that occasion?
A Rwandan LDS woman whose husband was falsely imprisoned for almost ten years for charges of hiring an assassin to kill a Tutsi woman during the 1994 genocide forgave his accusers. She chose to make forgiveness part of her healing. She told the accuser that she forgave him. She said that “while bad acts cause separation, forgiveness achieves the opposite.” When we forgive each other, we come together “like we were brothers and sisters.”
Kate says that as she writes about history, she can’t just forget things people have done wrong in the past. She must be a faithful reporter. As a historian, it is not her place to forgive. She comes back to Lenin and points out, in fairness, how much he cared about the Russian people and the terrible conditions they were in. Although he was kicked out of law school, he studied on his own and took the bar exams, earning first place. Instead of finding a respectable job, he chose to use his law skills to represent peasants. Seeing their poverty and struggles motivated his revolutionary work. Of course, this doesn’t excuse his later massive killings, but it does help us understand him better. The mistakes of the past must be remembered in order to safeguard the present, or we will keep making them, in George Santayana’s famous aphorism.
In discussing the difficulties of fairness of understanding past peoples, Kate says that one reason to forgive them is that their circumstances were so different from ours. We should not consider ourselves as morally superior to them, even while sometimes calling attention to something that was inexcusably bad.
Kate says, “Darius Gray is someone who has taught me to navigate the balance between avoiding anachronistic judgments and perpetrating them.” She tells about what happened when he found out, the night before baptism in 1964, that the Church didn’t give the priesthood to blacks. He thought he had been duped. But how could he tell his mother, who had been advising him against it? He wrestled with it all night, praying about it. He heard the words, “This is the restored gospel and you are to join.” The next day he was baptized.
She says that Darius has been a wonderful teacher to the Saints. He says forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting: “The first step toward healing is the realization that the problem exists, even among some of us in the Church, as President Hinckley pointed out. “We cannot fix that which we overlook or deny. Our attitudes toward others of a different race or a different culture cannot be considered a minor matter. Viewing them as such only affirms a willingness to stay unchanged.”
Darius’ example notes that we must treat each other as children of God. Holbrook gives as an example Enos, who had harsh things to say about the Lamanites but was moved to pray for them. Jacob (Jacob 2:35, 3:3, 3:5-9) and Ammon (Alma 26:23-25) pointed out some of the prejudice the Nephites felt for the Lamanites.
The reader will pardon me, I hope, for relating a favorite example from my own life. I served a two-year term as a transient manager at Deseret Industries in Provo. Our task was to provide food, shelter, and clothing for homeless persons who came in. One day a young woman came in, sat down, and said, “I’m not going to cry.” I reviewed her needs, gave her vouchers for them, then said, “Remember, you’re a daughter of God.” Then she cried. The next week she came back for more supplies. The first thing she said as she sat down was, “Now I’m a daughter of God. Isn’t that what you said?” I assured her that she was. I gave her more vouchers. As she stood up to leave, she said, “Thanks for not treating me like a piece of crap.”
Towards the end of this essay, Kate discusses the discovery of her eye cancer and the prognosis that she had six months to live. This is continued in the Epilogue, written by her husband Sam. He tells about wandering the streets of Manhattan, three days after Kate died, watching a podcast of a Maxwell Institute production at which Kate spoke.
When did they first know she was dying? There was the first tumor of the left eye, then the unrelated tumor in her skull two years later. After a CT scan and an MRI, they thought she had two years left. She had treatments; then they ceased to work. Tumors from her liver strangled her intestines and “she sputtered into smoky absence like a candle flame leaning against a stiff wind.” As the cancer progressed her shoulders sagged a little more; there was so much she wanted to finish; books articles, conferences, relationships, events, podcasts. And this was secondary; she prioritized family, friends and neighbors.
Sam, in remembering her, sees her life as a blessing. Indeed, that’s what Jewish friends said. He loves the phrase, “May her memory be a blessing.”
He says she grappled with the question how could “both [contradictory] things are true.” I have given several examples from the book previously. Here she is seeing it as a model for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, “At its core, Atonement is bringing together of two things that are not in their nature wholly compatible: human and divine, heaven and earth, life and death, perfection and imperfection. Such apparently contradictory worlds come together in the person of Christ.”
A final note in the chapter: as Sam and Kate were finishing this book, they thought she had six months; it turned out to be three weeks. They agonized over how to finish, and then several friends came forward to help. What a blessing they were.
They hope that “the sweet and life-giving breath of Christ in your lungs” will help you imagine “how in Christ these contraries can be made one.”
Essay #5: The Weight of Legacy
‘The Weight of Legacy’ was a lecture Kate gave. She says, “By legacy, I mean, everything our life’s work gives to the future.” In this chapter she presents interviews with people about what they would like their legacy to be. She tells about the terrific Conversations with author Terryl Givens, in which he interviews Latter-day Saints about the intersections of their intellectual work and their faith. An interesting question he frequently asks is what they thought would be printed in their obituaries or what they would like to see there.
Responses: the artist Brian Kershisnik: “I aspire, actually, more to being, I hope that I am to be a good human being rather than an artist.”
The writer Margaret Blair Young: “When I finally became a published writer I realized that it wasn’t that big of a deal… that was when I started taking my covenants very, very seriously…the name I most want to be is disciple.”
Young’s friend and collaborator, the founder of the Genesis Group, Darius Gray: for his obituary: “To those whom I’ve loved, I love you still…To those who have loved me, thank you. See you soon.”
Kate Holbrook herself: “I’ve written some books on Latter-day Saint women’s history that I feel have been good contributions…I think I’ll be remembered generally for some recipes that have come from me…”
Kate observes that we are caretakers of other people’s legacies. How do we speak about them? This relates to reputation. The author and motivational speaker Wayne Dyer once said: “Your reputation is in the hands of others…You can’t control that. The only thing you can control is your character.”
She gives another model to help us understand legacy, due the author Wendell Berry, who contrasts exploiters and nurturers. “Exploiters want to get the most for themselves out of any given resource or relationship…Nurturers are primarily concerned with the health of resources, relationships, and communities.”
Kate gives an example that shows, in a way, the legacy of Oliver Cowdery. Mark Staker of the Historical Sites Division of the Church Historical Department, was working on the restoration of the Harmony historical site. He recounts how Oliver walked all the way from Manchester, New York, to Harmony, Pennsylvania, through snow and rain, to meet Joseph. He and Joseph stayed up late that night, talking. Oliver gave his meager school teacher’s salary to Joseph to help with Joseph’s property and as a sign of his commitment. He began work immediately as Joseph’s scribe.
Staker, in reconstructing Oliver’s work, determined that Oliver’s writing grew wider as his quill pen tip flared out with use. He found that the quills were turkey feathers and wanted to place one in the house as an accurate representation of the translation process. But they were expensive, so he bought some goose feathers and made quill pens from them. He knew they were wrong, but determined to use them as best he could. The morning of the opening of the site he arrived early. There on the front stoop was a beautiful wild turkey feather, eleven inches long. He pulled out a penknife, trimmed it, and had the perfect quill pen sitting in Oliver’s inkwell a few minutes later.
Staker believes that while God orchestrated this tender mercy, he could not help but feel Oliver was pleased that his contributions were remembered and celebrated. Staker could say in his heart, “I know what you did,” and Oliver could whisper back, “I know you know.”
“Our representations of those who came before is one of the ways we seek to honor the dead and remember their legacy.” Kate quotes historian Richard Bushman, who noted that someday we will meet these people in Heaven, and they will want to know how we remembered them.
She reflects that “Terryl Givens’ question about legacy has led us to a complex conversation. How we want to be remembered is an uncomfortable and potentially incriminating question, but it is also beneficial because it invites us to reflect.”
Kate offers these thoughts in the spirit of empathy and encouragement but also warning us about the vanity that leads us to care more about our reputations than others’ well-being. Having said that, she notes that our legacies do matter. “The desire for our life’s work, to make a difference in the world, to persist in blessing our families and communities, is a worthy and righteous one. Truest of all is this: lasting legacies are made through …encouraging and remembering others, acting with integrity, and seeking truth through the Spirit.”
Kate’s final comment, “The legacy of the boy Joseph who sought…a quiet place to pray…” is not in his hands, it is in ours, in the ways we respond to the work he left behind. The same could be said of Kate Holbrook. Her legacy is now in our hands in the way we respond to the work she left behind.
Full Citation for this Article: Harrison, B. Kent (2024) "Both Things Are True, by Kate Holbrook," SquareTwo, Vol. 17 No. 1 (Spring 2024), http://squaretwo.org/Sq2ArticleHarrisonReviewHolbrook.html, accessed <give access date>.
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