I read this book as I flew home from my mission. It's true. It's a collection of 16 different essays written by general authorities and religious scholars/educators. The essays were presented at some five-day symposium back in 2000. I think I read maybe one or two essays in Houston and then read the rest during my flight home and into the first few weeks back.
The book is pretty good but didn't quite reach my hopeful level of expectations I had for it if I remember correctly. I like scholarly church-related books for the most part as long as it doesn't fall into the dreaded scholarly pitfall of being too dry or boring. I felt like a number of the essays sent me to snoozeville. But, I also remember really liking some of the essays. Merrill J. Bateman's in particular was very well done. I still remember to this day much of his essay. I also remember liking Gerald N. Lund's and Robert L. Millet's. But yes, I liked it overall. There are lots of interesting insights for sure.
A quote from Merrill J. Bateman's essay which is titled "And He Did Invite Them One by One" which is a good essay about how Christ views us individually and personally:
He talks about when Christ appeared to the Nephites and allowed them to feel his wounds "one by one until they had all gone forth" (3 Nephi 11:15) and then points out: "The multitude totaled 2,500 souls (see 3 Nephi 17:25). If each person were given fifteen to twenty seconds to approach the Lord, touch the open wound in His side, feel the marks in His hands and feet, and express a brief thanks, at least eleven to twelve hours would have been consumed."
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