The relief society in our ward has been reading The Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister. They invited him to speak to them about the process of writing this book. A lot of his comments were enlightening so I thought I would post my notes in the hopes that they might help some one (and so if I loose my paper I can look here :) ). Confession time-I have not yet read the book, but am going to start soon. I didn't have enough brain capacity to read this book and Jesus the Christ at the same time.
How he wrote it-
* He started researching in 1982. He decided he wanted to study topics more in depth than he had done before. He started with the Atonement and thought he would work on it about 30 days. At the end of 30 days he decided to go another 30 days. Then he decided to just keep going until he felt like it was time to stop. 18 years later the book was published.
* His method was to put each question he had about the atonement on a folder then add any scriptures or quotes that answered this question into the folder.
* Some of his main sources-Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Joseph F. Smith, Orson F. Whitney (a poem called Elias), James E. Talmage and Bruce R. McConkie. The non LDS authors he recommended were John Milton- "Paradise Lost", Frederick W. Farrar- "Life of Christ", John Dunn and C.S. Lewis.
* He felt like a very inadequate writer, but there were times when he could tell the Lord was speaking through his pen.
Some of the lessons he learned while writing-
* Good books take time.
* He was given some criticism and had to decide if he wanted to win (he wanted to defend his writing) or have a better book. He decided to have a better book. We can apply this to ourselves-do you want to win or have a better marriage? a better relationship with your family? etc.
* Sometimes commentaries can rob us of person revelation. If we have other people's thoughts floating around in our brains it can crowd out the words coming from above.
* He talked to many people about the atonement and learned that you don't have to be a theologian to have insights about the atonement.
* Insights come line upon line if we stick with it. We need to pay the price, do our homework and the answers and help will come.
* He spoke about the experience Joseph Smith had after his baptism. This is from Joseph Smith's history
http://lds.org/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1.68-72?lang=eng#67
74 Our minds being now enlightened, we began to have the ascriptures laid open to our understandings, and the btrue meaning and intention of their more cmysterious passages revealed unto us in a manner which we never could attain to previously, nor ever before had thought of.
* Dallin H. Oaks made the comment to Elder Callister that he always prays before eating so he should also pray before feeding his soul.
* Scriptures have their own language. The Holy Ghost is the interpreter.
Some of the biggest revelations he had while writing-
* The worst consequence of sin is separation from God. Jesus never sinned so He didn't experience this separation until He was on the cross. Matthew 27: 46 "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, aMy God, my God, why hast thou bforsaken me?"
* He went over Doctrine and Covenants 84 that discussed the purposes of ordinances and how they relate to the atonement.
* The gifts of the spirit are attributes of God. Doctrine and Covenants 46
* The divinity of Jesus Christ enabled Him to suffer all and thus succor all. Our release is death or unconsciousness. Perhaps His divinity allowed Him a greater capacity to allow Him to perform the atonement.
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