Teach the doctrine clearly, from the scriptures.
A DA (or doctrinal approach to studying the scriptures) is a named (tagged) method of studying and marking a gospel topic. It consists of an acronym, a name or label, an anchoring take-off passage and supporting scriptures gathered from across all the standard works. This site's purpose is to document the DAs we have been taught as well as the ones we have created/discovered through our own study. We plan for it to be a growing body of verse-by-verse commentary and study aide on the doctrine and principles found in holy writ. Welcome.
How it works
Take-off
Each topic is anchored by a single passage worth memorizing. From it, you can navigate to everything else.
Tag
In paper scriptures, a student writes an acronym like FA in the margin beside every verse/passage that relates to that doctrine. Here, every passage shows the tags of all the topics it supports.
Expounding
Commentary works at the phrase level: an exact phrase is drawn from a verse and the doctrine inside it is explained, with cross-references.
Where this comes from
The doctrinal-approach framework was developed by Glenn L. Pearson and Reid E. Bankhead and taught in their book Building Faith with the Book of Mormon. It began as a Book of Mormon course for returned missionaries taught by Brother Bankhead at Brigham Young University -- a course designed to continue to build and strengthen faith of those students. This site strives to continue carrying that work forward as a living, collaborative study aide.
The name comes from a scriptural description of people who "were men [and women] of a sound understanding" -- they understood the doctrine of Christ and could teach it from the scriptures. That is our aim and desire.