Mormons were once confident that science would prove the "rationality" of LDS theology. Books were written about "Joseph Smith as scientist" and students at church schools celebrated Charles Darwin's birthday without hint of controversy, believing that evolution confirmed the Mormon doctrine of eternal progression.

The editors of this volume document the striking "retreat from science" on the part of Latter-day Saints over the past three-quarters of a century and suggest that this needless path could be averted to the benefit of the church. They indicate how a friendlier relationship might be established between science and religion.

Gene A. Sessions, a professor of history at Weber State University, is the author of Latter-day Patriots: Nine Mormon Families and Their Revolutionary War Heritage, Mormon Thunder: A Documentary History of Jedediah Morgan Grant, and Prophesying Upon the Bones: J. Reuben Clark and the Foreign Debt Crisis; and is co-author of Camp Floyd and the Mormons: The Utah War. He is the editor of Mormon Democrat: The Religious and Political Memoirs of James Henry Moyle.

Craig J. Oberg is a professor of microbiology at Weber State University where he has published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Food Structure Journal, Journal of Chemical Education, Journal of Diary Science, and Journal of Diary Technology. He holds the first patent for a genetically engineered, food-grade micro- organism. He is the recipient of the Aldous Dixon and Crystal Crest WSU alumni association awards. He and his family live in Liberty, Utah.