Getting Started
Where to Begin
Study by Faith can be used by anyone from beginners to experts. Over time, we will be continually adding content to help you grow in your understanding of the Church’s history and doctrine beginning with what you already know. Study by Faith recognizes that understanding the Church’s history also requires understanding its doctrine, and vice versa. This is why we’ve broken the content down into Church History and Church Doctrine, with an additional section to supplement the Church’s Come Follow Me curriculum.
Church History
To learn the basic history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, click on the Church History button and decide whether you want to study by Periods, People, Places, or Subjects. For example, if you want to study the Church’s history as it unfolded chronologically, click on Periods. If you want to study the history through biography, click on People. If you want to study the history of a particular country or locale, click on Places. Or if you want to study historical topics, click on Subjects.
Church Doctrine
To study the Church’s doctrines, click the Church Doctrine button. There you will find thirteen categories of Church doctrine, roughly equivalent to the Church’s thirteen Articles of Faith. By clicking on each of these thirteen buttons, you will find an outline that provides information systematically. Finally, you can simply type a doctrinal term into the search field provided.
Come Follow Me
Many people are interested in learning the history or doctrine of the Church beyond what is provided in the weekly Come Follow Me curriculum. This part of Study by Faith is intended to help you go as far as you want in studying the history and doctrine.
Levels of Learning
In both the Church History and Church Doctrine portions of this website, you will find sources recommended for your skill level. You can progress from beginner to expert as you read the sources on one level and then move systematically through those that follow.
While we don’t yet have these capabilities, we hope eventually to offer a way for you to track your progress and return to that spot so you can easily continue your learning track.
We hope you will find this site both educational and inspiring. If you encounter new information that differs from what you learned in the past, consider that finding to be the beginning of an exciting journey of discovery. Our goal is to help users grow in their knowledge and understanding of the Church’s history and doctrine. Users who regularly read the newsletter or study the website’s content in an orderly fashion will progress over time from beginners to experts. We hope you will find the newsletter and website to be educational and edifying.