Introduction to Doctrinal Mastery

There are five doctrinal mastery lessons, designed to help students understand the purpose of doctrinal mastery and learn about principles of acquiring spiritual knowledge.

• Strengthening Your Spiritual Foundation: Introduction to Doctrinal Mastery. Provides students an overall vision of what doctrinal mastery is and what kinds of learning experiences they can expect to help them develop doctrinal mastery. Best taught at the beginning of the school year if many students are new to seminary or as a mid-year review.

• Seeking Personal Revelation for My Questions: Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge, Part 1. Helps students understand how they can receive guidance and revelation from God through the Holy Ghost. Best taught at the beginning of the school year.

• Acting in Faith to Find Answers: Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge, Part 2. Helps students understand how to act with faith in Jesus Christ as they seek answers to their questions. Best taught at the beginning of the school year.

• Examining Gospel Topics and Questions with an Eternal Perspective: Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge, Part 3. Helps students see concepts and questions more like Jesus Christ as students examine them with an eternal perspective. Best taught at the beginning of the school year.

• Turning to Divinely Appointed Sources to Help Find Answers: Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge, Part 4. Helps students understand the importance of seeking truth from sources that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have lovingly provided. Best taught at the beginning of the school year.

Doctrinal Mastery Passages Taught in Context

When teaching a lesson from a scripture block that includes a doctrinal mastery passage, look for ways to emphasize the passage. Teach the passage in context, and focus on the doctrine it teaches. You will notice this icon whenever there is a doctrinal mastery passage. 

You may want to encourage students to mark each passage so that students can locate them later.

The Doctrinal Mastery Core Document (2023) contains a list of the 24 doctrinal mastery passages for each course. Your pacing guide will likely not include all lessons that address the doctrinal mastery passages in context while seminary is in session, so be sure to look for opportunities to help students review all 24 passages. You could spend 5 minutes every lesson to help master these passages.

When the doctrinal mastery passages are studied in class, be sure to spend sufficient time studying the doctrine taught in the doctrinal mastery passage so that students know and understand it. Each lesson with a doctrinal mastery passage includes a suggestion to help students practice memorizing the scripture reference and key scripture phrase as part of the lesson and to practice again in future lessons. Students will need regular practice to memorize the references and key scripture phrases. “Doctrinal Mastery Review Ideas” includes suggestions for how you might help students practice memorizing the reference and key scripture phrase. This can be found in the appendix of the seminary teacher manual.

Doctrinal Mastery Reviews

To master anything requires repetition and practice. To this end, we encourage teachers to take 5 minutes every lesson to review elements of docrinal mastery, especially the key words and scripture references. These review activities can be fun and will help students memorize scriptures and be prepared to use them in their lives.

Scripture review activities can practice any of the elements of doctrinal mastery but especially the "mastering the doctrine' elements in light blue. They should be brief, no longer than 5 minutes, so as not to interfere with lesson material and they are usually done as part of the devotional at the beginning of the lesson.

Ideas for these reviews can be found here. The Doctrinal Mastery app can also be useful for these reviews. Do a review everyday!