[SeattleUte]

I read "The Great Apostasy" on my mission. Even as a brain washed young pup I was shocked at how poorly written it was, and the facile dismissal of two thousand years of history, and crude anti-Catholicism. I read "Jesus the Christ," and it has left almost no impression on me at all. This is unusual, because as you may have noted, when I take the time to read a complicated book I usually drill down, spend time reading it, remember lines, rearead passages, etc. It becomes a part of me. All I remember about Jesus the Christ is that it was extremely derivative when it didn't engage in flights of fancy about events for which there is no legitimate historical record at all.

There are many Mormon scholars like B.H. Roberts, Henry Eyring, Rex Lee, and Sterlign McMurrin for which I have a lot of respect. From what I've seen, Talmage was a pretender.