Thanks for posting your comment above. You are completely correct that there are many things in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism that need to be updated. The very short article on “Evolution” illustrates the helpful role that updates can play in “phase 3″ mentioned in the Church News article. In phase 3, the Encyclopedia will be posted in a text-based format that will allow scholars to point readers to relevant materials published after 1991 (when the writing of the Encyclopedia was finished) and also to update statements that need to be updated.

For example, the article in the Encyclopedia on “Temples” says that the Church has 46 temples, which was true in 1990, but now needs to be updated.

Likewise, in phase 3, the article on “Evolution” could be supplemented with information from James B. Allen’s award-winning 1994 chapter covering all the known discussions that occurred throughout 1931 over pre-Adamite death. Resolving that issue was seen by some as a necessary precondition to any discussion of organic evolution. It could also be noted that the vigorous discussion in 1931 expanded beyond the April 7 statement by the First Presidency, for instance, when Elder James E. Talmage delivered his speech entitled “The Earth and Man” on August 7, 1931. Further references to the introductory materials in the BYU Studies 1996 edition of B.H. Roberts’s The Truth, The Way, The Life (which work was unknown to the authors and editors of the Encyclopedia in 1991) and other more recently published materials might also be helpful.

Obviously, any encyclopedia that was written sixteen years ago will stand in need of some updating, but many careful readers continue to find that most articles in the Encyclopedia have weathered quite well.

The 1931 First Presidency memo from which the excerpt is taken quotes Elder B. H. Roberts saying that

“the points questioned and the paper in defense of them [have] suspended the publication of my book — now in manuscript — ‘ The Truth, The Way, The Life ’.”

Elder Roberts wrote ‘ The Truth, The Way, The Life ’ in 1927-1928 as a Melchizedek Priesthood study guide.  Five members of the Quorum of the Twelve were assigned to review the manuscript.  They found problems.  But Elder Roberts was unwilling to make certain requested changes.  Hence the increasing intensity of the discussions which continued for three and a half years until the First Presidency said on April 7, 1931:

“We can see no advantage to be gained by a continuation of the discussion to which reference is here made, but on the contrary are certain that it would lead to confusion, division, and misunderstanding if carried further.”

The Encyclopedia of Mormonism was published in 1992.  Two years later, the Church authorized publication of the Roberts book by BYU Studies.  Thirteen BYU scholars were invited to prepare critical essays discussing and analyzing various aspects of the book.  These essays are part of the BYU Studies publication.

One of the essays was written by William E. Evenson.  In his 1994 essay, Evenson acknowledged that the opinions of B. H. Roberts were “not those of an evolutionist” and that the 1931 discussions “were not centered on the scientific theories of origins of life forms.”  (William E. Evenson, “Science: The Universe, Creation, and Evolution,” in The Truth, The Way, The Life [2nd edition, Provo: BYU Studies, 1996], p. 645; emphasis added.)

Let’s just repeat that for emphasis:  The opinions of B. H. Roberts were “not those of an evolutionist” and the discussions “were not centered on the scientific theories of origins of life forms.”  (Ibid.)

In his 1994 essay, Evenson further acknowledged that the Roberts book “addresses three forms of evolutionary theory [and] finds all three … to be inadequate.”  (Ibid.)  Evenson concedes in the essay that B. H. Roberts “rejects all [1930s evolutionary] theories as he understands them [and] puts forward his own theory” to reconcile the scriptures with the fossil record.  (Ibid.)

This is a complete turn around from what Evenson had earlier written in his Encyclopedia Evolution article.  Not only was there no “intense” discussion on the issue of organic evolution, there was no discussion at all on the issue.  The intended meaning of the 1931 excerpt that is quoted in Evenson’s Encyclopedia Evolution article is simply this: “Don’t let science modify faith.”  It relates to the theory of evolution only indirectly.