This is when ‘Saints’ Volume 4 will be released

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Every time Jed Woodworth speaks, hungry readers ask him for the release date of Volume 4 of “Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days.”
The managing historian of “Saints” preempted that question Tuesday during a presentation at BYU Education Week.
“When are we going to see Volume 4?” he said. “I have an answer for you: Oct. 29. The book is at press now.”
Volume 4 will be titled, “Saints: Sounded in Every Ear, 1955–2020.” It will narrate the church’s globalization since the dedication of the Bern Switzerland Temple in 1955 and show how temples now dot the earth.
Woodworth also shared the new cover art for Volume 4, an update of the initial concept released in 2018. The changes are the result of committee work, including counseling with the First Presidency of the church.
The Volume 4 cover features temples in Accra, Ghana; Hong Kong; Mexico City; Nuku’alofa, Tonga; and São Paulo, Brazil.
Previous volume covers featured the Nauvoo Temple in Illinois, the Salt Lake Temple and the Bern temple.
“I believe revelation was at work,” Woodworth said. “Where we ended up was (across the four volumes), we have two North American temples, a European temple, a Central American temple, Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands and South America. In other words, we ended up with every region of the world save the Middle East, because we don’t have a temple there.”
Woodworth’s presentation also focused on the way the history’s writers used temples and temple covenants as tent poles for the arc and structure of the four volumes, which the Deseret News will cover in another story.
Despite preempting and answering the Volume 4 question, Woodworth wound up answering a new one: Will there be a Volume 5?
“Well,” he said, “Saints 4 ends in 2020, so we’re at 2024, and you have to have at least 20 years of history to be made before you can have a Volume 5.”
Woodworth’s hope is that future Latter-day Saint leaders and historians will decide to add to “Saints,” but they may find it necessary to change direction.
“Writing styles change over time,” Woodworth said. “Historians can clearly see this. So it could be that by 2040 or 2045, a different style will resonate (with readers). So ‘Saints’ may have to be shelved. I hope not.”
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