Divine Authority

Divine Authority is a tract by Orson Pratt (1811-1881), the American Latter-day Saint apostle and theologian. The tract addresses the question of religious authority and argues for the distinctive Mormon position that genuine divine authority requires direct apostolic succession traceable to the original New Testament apostles and restored through Joseph Smith’s prophetic ministry.

The question of religious authority had been one of the central issues of the broader American Protestant religious landscape in the first half of the nineteenth century. The various Protestant denominations each claimed authority but disagreed about its basis. The Catholic position claimed apostolic succession through the Roman papacy. The various Restorationist movements including Mormonism argued that the true succession had been broken at some point in church history and required divine restoration.

Pratt’s tract sets out the Mormon argument against the Protestant and Catholic positions and for the Latter-day Saint claim to restored apostolic authority. The argument was central to Mormon missionary work in the period and the tract was widely distributed by LDS missionaries across the United States, Britain, and various other countries.