Mormons' Dismissive View of Theology

Terryl Givens once asked a big-wig at Deseret Book why they didn't publish more books on Mormon theology.  The response to his question was something along the lines of, "Well why don't you write one and if we like it we'll publish it."

This story highlights a weird trait about Mormonism.  Despite being very religious and spending a great deal of time reading scripture, they don't concern themselves much with theology at least as a systematic rational analysis of the word of God.  Sure, every Mormon is an amateur Theologian, but regarding official systematized theology, there's very little of it.  There's never been an Augustine of Hippo in Mormonism and never will be.

As far as official statements go, Mormon theology is very limited.  If you want to know every thing Mormons officially believe you only have to read James E. Talmage's Articles of Faith and Jesus The Christ.  Of course, these aren't nearly as useful for making straw man attacks against Mormonism as The Journal of Discourses or Mormon Doctrine and so aren't as widely known outside of Mormonism.

So if Mormons don't actually believe that many things why is The Journal of Discourses 26 volumes long and why doesn't Sunday School get boring?  As Matthew Bowman said: "There is a great deal which Mormons might believe; there is very little that they must believe."  (Actually his whole article is a great read: Why Is It So Hard to Figure Out What Mormons Believe?)

And this gets to the heart of Mormonism and it's extreme egalitarianism.  Not only can any Mormon be a prophet and theologian, they are encouraged to do so.