Craig James Ostler was a professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University when this was written. Ostler and his wife, Sandy, have seven children. He served as a missionary in the ​Colombia Bogotá Mission and has served as a bishop once and as a high councilor twice. Previous to coming to BYU he taught in the Church Educational System. He has directed many BYU Travel Study Tours throughout the United States to American heritage and Church history sites, as well as through Israel, Egypt, and Jordan. He and his family lived in Jerusalem while he was a faculty member at the BYU Center for Near Eastern Studies.