Chapter 1 is the best temple prep book ever. I sat down with Jonathan Stapley, an award-winning historian to discuss his newest book, Holiness to the Lord: Latter Day Saint Temple Worship. During the show, Stapley was even surprised he won the “Best Temple Book of 2025” award! I thi

0:00 Award Winning Author on LDS Temple Worship

3:20 Is Temple Worship Taboo?

10:14 Required Reading for Temple Prep

17:52 Kirtland Temple Period

For many, the LDS temple can feel like a secretive or taboo topic, but Stapley’s new book aims to change that. He designed his first chapter to be a transparent walkthrough for anyone preparing for the temple. It covers the practical, step-by-step process of going to the temple, from talking to a local bishop and purchasing garments to making an appointment and participating in the ceremonies.

Stapley explains that this level of openness is highly beneficial. Not only does it help outsiders understand the faith’s practices, but it also gives practicing Latter-day Saints a much-needed framework for discussing the temple constructively, helping them avoid being unhelpfully “cagey” or silent about their worship. Furthermore, Stapley pushes back against critics who use the private nature of the temple as a “dig” against the church, noting that the creation of sacred, “insider/outsider” boundary-maintaining spaces is a common practice across many world religions and ancient Christianity.

When it comes to the temple’s core ceremony—the endowment—Stapley makes a striking historical observation: there is no such thing as an “OG” (original) endowment.

Before temples, bishops, or apostles were even fully established in the church, Joseph Smith taught that the saints would be “endowed with power from on high,” a concept pulled directly from the biblical books of Luke and Acts. Originally, this endowment was a charismatic experience rather than a set ritual. Over time, these biblical concepts were ritualized and performed, constantly adapting to the needs of the church.

Because the ceremony was initially transmitted orally, Stapley notes that the ritual has continually changed and adapted throughout its entire history. He directly challenges fundamentalist attempts to reconstruct a supposedly “original” 8-hour endowment, stating that such a platonic ideal never actually existed, and that procedural changes are a historical reality, not proof of apostasy as fundamentalists allege.

Stapley shared that we are currently living in a “golden era” of Latter-day Saint historical research. Compared to a couple of decades ago when archive access felt like the “wild west,” there is now sustained openness and transparency, with massive resources like the Brigham Young papers available freely online.

While the church still naturally redacts specific details about the temple ceremonies from third-party historical documents, Stapley isn’t bothered by this. Instead of getting bogged down in reconstructing “ticky tack” changes to the ceremonies, he is far more interested in the bigger picture: understanding what these sacred rituals actually do in the lives, minds, and communities of the believers who participate in them.

Have you read his book? What are your impressions?