Both Things Are True

The heart of Kate Holbrook's great and kind wisdom was her clear faith that truth is not so much something we know as it is something we do and live and bring to pass. In these essays she shows us, with lovely humility and warmth, that the life of a Latter-day Saint should be one of abundant generosity and forgiveness, directed both to ourselves and to others. Kate worked ceaselessly to live a true life. As she invites us to watch her labor may we be inspired to seek to do the same.

Kate is a role model, particularly for women balancing competing demands for their time and energy, for doing what they feel called to do and being creative in prioritizing.

Life and beauty in the face of death. In Both Things Are True, Kate Holbrook offers a shockingly self-aware and urgent meditation on what it is to truly live according to faith. As we balance the endless demands on time and labor, it can be easy to leave work undone that seems most vital. Through poignant experiences, Kate demonstrates how this work can be enabled through the grace of Christ and the community of saints.

In these essays both Kate Holbrook's striking insights and her abundant graciousness come together in inspiring ways. Whether pricking our consciences or illuminating how a tuna-noodle casserole can be a holy offering, Kate has left a work that matters, a work that calls us to holier ways of living in faith.

Throughout this book, one of Kate Holbrook’s greatest strengths is on stunning display: her ability to be a human bridge. In this case, she bridges the gap between unquestioning believers and those with a more natural inclination to skepticism. As I read the interview with Kate at the beginning of this book, I found myself longing to have just one more conversation with her. But, in the essays that followed, I found that thirst quenched as I was reunited, if for only a moment, with the Kate whose work has made an indelible impression on my life—the Kate who makes even the most mundane feel magical, who helps me see history through a reasonable lens, and who leaves me on each encounter longing to be better.

In words that are smart, honest, and deeply generous, Kate Holbrook’s essays lead us through the experiences of an extraordinary woman, one deeply shaped by the religious community that she loved so dearly. Her acute observations about the details of life, both momentous and mundane, remind us that the search for truth and the need to give and receive love are both necessary and never complete. We are always building, she advises. And what a remarkable edifice of her own faith she has left for others! She invites us as a faithful guide to glimpse the world as she saw and lived it: filled with the possibility for human care and connection and steeped in the beauty of both natural and social worlds. Kate’s luminous voice will surely touch readers, just as she touched so many lives and brought life to the words of many more.

For a disciple-scholar like Kate Holbrook, speaking in the language of faith is essential and speaking in the language of scholarship is essential. Both things are true, even if few people master both skills. Kate has both gifts in abundance. Her mind integrates while so many others divide, teaching that principles that are apparently contradictory are both true. She wrestles with big questions. What does it mean to say the Church is true? How does revelation come? With vulnerable personal stories and with examples from scripture, early Church history, and modern Saints from Rwanda to Russia, Kate shares her wise, empathetic voice. Most of all, these essays share her voice of faith—of faith in Jesus Christ, of faith in the Church she loves, of faith in the stories of the past to teach and to inspire, of faith in people struggling through their own mortal experience.

In Both Things Are True, Kate Holbrook speaks as a prophetess crying in the wilderness. Like Miriam, she leads a generation of believers wandering through new, unfamiliar territory. Like Deborah, she is a wise judge evaluating competing moral claims. Like Anna, she bears witness of the Messiah even when He appears in humble domestic circumstances. Like Eliza, she is a leading voice within the Church. Like all of these women, Kate is a real human with fallibilities who did her best to follow God in the time she had. Both Things Are True is a corrective to today’s brittle ideologies and polarized perspectives, calling us to fidelity to each other and to Christ.

Kate Holbrook’s collection of essays opens a window into her soul—a window that was not often transparent to others. Her personal writings expose her sacred vulnerabilities as well as her core truths. I feel as though I am better acquainted with this deep, expansive part of her after reading her private words to better understand her public work. Kate lived her religion, full of careful thought and interpretation. She expands definitions while carefully and thoughtfully working through dissonance and tension to come to her wholeness. It’s an enlightening view.

Both Things Are True is a gift to those who already love Kate Holbrook and to those who will come to love her through this book. As an expert in women’s history at the Church History Department, she helped expand awareness of Latter-day Saint women’s contributions and the use of their words in Church settings. Her long battle with cancer focused her piercing intellect and generous spirit on important questions about life and legacy. In these essays, Kate grapples with the challenges of balancing work and home, finding belonging, and navigating thorny issues in Church history. She describes writing history as a sacred act, as weighted with the obligation to love and forgive as are our relationships with the living. Her words reverberate with her deep love for the Savior, the gospel, the Church, and the imperfect people within and outside it.