Lowell Bennion

The Logic of the Gospel

There are those who delight in pitting faith against reason and who thereby dis parage thinking in order to exalt religion. They even find scriptural justification for taking this stance in the writings of Paul,…

“For By Grace Are Ye Saved”

Years ago, when I was a Mormon missionary, I became anxious when a Protestant minister quoted these words of Paul: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is…

This-Worldly and Other-Worldly Sex: A Response

Carl Broderick’s essay treats many aspects of sex in an objective, discreet, and interesting way which should be helpful to Latter-day Saints, both in personal and family living and also in their responsibilities in the…

The Mormon Family in the Modern World: Introduction

Not only is the family the primary social institution in Mormonism, it is also much too large a theme for a special section in one issue of Dialogue. Hopefully, the Journal will be able to…

President David O. McKay: 1873-1970: My Memories of President David O. McKay

My first recollection of David O. McKay is a sermon he gave in a Sacrament Meeting which led me as a teenager to engage in critical self-examination and to leave the meeting with high resolve. …

A New Look at Repentance: The Gift of Repentance

Except for the preaching of evangelists—whether of a Billy Graham or of the small holiness sects—one hears little of repentance in this secular age, and this is also true among Latter-day Saints. It is not…

A Black Mormon Perspective | Alan Gerald Cherry, It’s You and Me Lord! (My Experiences as a Black Mormon)

This is a brief autobiography of Alan Cherry, a young black man who grew up in New York City, entered the Air Force in Texas after a year and a half of college, was court…

Carrying Water on Both Shoulders

A thoughtful Latter-day Saint who grows up in his faith and takes it seriously may encounter difficulties as he immerses himself in secular education, particularly on the graduate level, and more particularly if he is…

Religion and Morality

In an open forum discussion on religion, a college student asked the panel: “Can an atheist be moral?” (He was using the word in its broad meaning to include all behavior deemed good or bad).…

Three Loyalties in Religion

Being religious can mean many different things—like going to church, reading scripture, believing in God, keeping the commandments. In fact religion embraces so much that one needs to cast his own religious beliefs and feelings…

Reflections on T. Edgar Lyon

T. Edgar Lyon, a healthy and rugged man who had hardly known a sick day, died at age seventy-five after a short, losing battle with cancer. In his death, his wife, six sons, and thirty-two grandchildren lost a gentle, loving husband and father, and the Church a great historian and teacher. 

Jesus and the Prophets

In his writings on the sociology of religion, Max Weber contrasts two types of religious leaders: emissary and exemplary prophets. The founders of the great religions of mankind fall into one of these two categories. …

Thoughts For the Best, the Worst of Times

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . . It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”[1] This was Charles Dickens’s appraisal of life…

Reflections on the Restoration

The world’s living religions began with the lives and teachings of charismatic leaders such as Moses, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, and Muham mad. Each won a following by the force of his character, the witness of…

Serving or Converting? A Panel: To Serve, then Teach

I would like to try to lay a religious foundation for the point of view I am going to take regarding serving or converting. I see five basic dimensions to being religious. Some people feel…

A Mormon View of Life