A Survey of Current Literature: Selected Bibliography of Recent Articles

From its early years on the social fringe,” U.S. News & World Report I recently told its readers, the Mormon Church “has become America’s largest and wealthiest home-grown religion by offering shelter in stormy times.” Even the way the “Church regularly flexes its organizational muscle is the envy of governments.”[1]Such praise was fairly commonplace in 1983 as Mormons of the Great Basin Kingdom manned the sandbag lines against flood waters that threatened entire communities last spring and summer. 

Although Galloway speculates that the possible presidency of Apostle Ezra Taft Benson “could bring the greatest schism” the Church “has seen since polygamy was outlawed in 1890,” few other authors have even attempted such speculation. Instead what we have seen are insightful examinations on the physical health of the Saints, and the glamorization of Mormon athletes, artists, and performers. 

Equally captivating for periodical writers has been the Church’s continuing stand against the Equal Rights Amendment, its dealings with government, law, and politics, and the growing controversy over where scholarship ends and heresy begins. Unfortunately, several fine works had relatively limited audiences because they were published in Mormon-oriented journals. We need not always speak to each other. 

[1] Joseph L. Galloway, “Mormon Church Faces a Fresh Challenge,” U.S. News & World Report 95 (21 Nov. 1983): 61.