Robert A. Rees
Robert A. Rees, Ph.D., teaches Mormon Studies at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and at UC Berkeley. Rees is the editor and author of numerous studies in Education, American Studies, and Religious Studies. He is also a published poet, essayist, editorialist, and blogger. He is the editor of Why I Stay: The Challenges of Discipleship for Contemporary Mormons and co-editor of The Reader’s Book of Mormon.
Black Mormons and the Priesthood: A Retrospective Perspective
Typical of far too many youths of my generation, I grew up in a racist home, a racist community, and in racist Latter-day Saint congregations. As a young man, I harbored deep racist sentiments and…
Read moreSearching for Heavenly Mother: Toward an Imaginative Latter-day Saint Theology
By Gloria Gardner Rees & Bob Rees I “Surely some revelation is at hand!”—Wm Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming” “Heavenly Mother’s emergence out of obscurity changes everything. Profoundly.”—Terryl and Fiona Given It is important to say…
Read moreThe Book of Mormon Collection in the William Andrews Clark Library
Read moreA Conversation About Mormonism
The following is a transcript of a discussion held in Los Angeles in March, 1975. The discussion was organized by Jerry Kaufmann, an investigator of Mormonism from New York. In addition to Kaufmann, participants include…
Read moreTruth and Reconciliation: Reflections on the Fortieth Anniversary of the LDS Church’s Lifting the Priesthood and Temple Restrictions for Black Mormons of African Descent
Listen to the audio version of this piece here. The Church has no power to do wrong with impunity any more than any individual. Brigham Young[1] America’s history of racial inequality continues to haunt us.…
Read morePortrait of a (Latter-day) Saint
I miss Gene England! I have especially missed his voice these past twenty years. So many times, I have wondered, “What would Gene have said about . . .” as we have stumbled and bungled…
Read morePrism
Podcast version of this piece. They had agreedthat if she were seenthe boy wouldn’t be believedin seeing them.Nevertheless, she was there,her iridescent spherea coronaover their column of sun,reflecting,refractingthe morning.The flowers turned to her,the green of…
Read moreTikkun K’nessiah: Repairing the Church
Read more“Truth is the Daughter of Time”: Notes Toward an Imaginative Mormon History
In a 1969 review-essay entitled “The New Mormon History,” Moses Rischin spoke of the sophistication with which scholars both within and without the Mormon culture were beginning to examine the Mormon past. He added, “This seems only the beginning. A giant step from church history to religious and intellectual history seems in the offing. As Mormon continuities and discontinuities are reassessed from entirely new perspectives and with a potentially greater audience than ever before, other Ameri cans and Mormons may better come to understand themselves.”
Read moreJoseph Smith and the Face of Christ
“He will unveil his face to you.” D&C 88:67–68 “Everything in the realm of nature and human existence is a sign—a manifestation of God’s divine names and attributes. . . . As it is said in the Qur’an,…
Read moreWes Johnson: Visionary Historian
Read moreReview: Lost in Translation Adam S. Miller. The Sun Has Burned My Skin: A Modest Paraphrase of Solomon’s Song of Songs
Read moreForgotten Birds
Read moreReimagining the Restoration: Why Liberalism is the Ultimate Flowering of Mormonism
Read moreOrdination and Blessing
Read moreArticles and Essays in Mormon Studies
The perversion of the mind is only possible when those who should be heard in its defense are silent. Archibald MacLeish A decade ago one might have been hard pressed to compile a sizable bibliography of…
Read moreThe Imagination’s New Beginning: Thoughts on Esthetics and Religion
While it is true that there has been no substantial literary tradition among the Mormons, there are indications that one is beginning. For the first time there is a sufficient number of Mormon scholars and critics who can help establish the climate for a legitimate literature and there are more and more creative writers who are turning their talents to Mormon subjects. Therefore, it is not my purpose to lament the fact that a Mormon literature does not now exist. Rather, I choose to discuss how the literary esthetic can serve religion and how a rebirth of the imagination can and should serve the Church today. For if anything would militate against acceptance of an emerging Mormon literature it would be our continued distrust of the imagination.
Read moreDramatic Christianity | Daniel Berrigan, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine
Thus begins Father Daniel Berrigan’s poem, “The Passion of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” which in some ways is also a poem about his own passion. On 17 May 1968, prompted by conscience and a courage similar to that of Bonhoeffer, Daniel and Phillip Berrigan, Jesuit priests, went with seven of their friends into draft board number 33 at Catonsville, Maryland, where they confiscated 378 individual draft files.
Read moreA Continuing Dialogue
Although it has been over five years since I received the first issue of Dialogue, I vividly remember the excitement with which I opened it and devoured it in one sitting. I suddenly felt a renewal of faith in myself and in my fellow saints. I discovered that there were Mormons who shared not only my concern for the life of the mind in the Church, but who also shared some of my deepest feelings about the life of the spirit in the world, who seemed unafraid to think, to explore, to question—and unembarrassed to fast, to pray, and to testify.
Read moreThe Gospel, Mormonism and American Culture
This issue of Dialogue emphasizes the relationship between Mormonism and American culture. John Sorenson’s lead article on “Mormon World View and American Culture” sets the stage by attempting to make a distinction between the gospel…
Read moreScience, Religion and Man
Dialogue 8.3/4 (1973): 4–6
The divergence of science and religion is essentially a modern phenomenon. Until the 18th century, theology was considered the queen of the sciences and scientists considered that their discoveries allowed them “to think God’s thoughts after Him.”
The Possibilities of Dialogue
In a remarkable essay entitled “Beyond Politics” in a recent issue of BYU Studies, Hugh Nibley makes an exciting observation: God not only desires a free discussion with men, He encourages it. Further, it is an essential part of His modus operandi for our return to His presence.
Read more“Cooperating in Works of the Spirit”: Notes Toward a Higher Dialogue
Communication is a matter of infinite hope. It is the emotion we feel when we send these fragile words however tentatively or forcefully out to others. Even those who write secret diaries, shrouded in cryptic codes, or who shout anonymous messages on subway walls, or who carefully hide parchment and golden plates in caves to come forth several millennia later all do so with the same expectation: that someone, somewhere will read and understand.
Read moreSomewhere Near Palmyra
He saw something that morning
deep among the delicate leaves
burning against the Eastern sky
Fishers
In the last days of summer
we walk through tall grass
to the river
long before the sun spills
Monologues and Dialogues: A Personal Perspective
Engaging in dialogue is one of the first experiences we have as human beings. Even when our communication is only inarticulate gurgling, we are participating in some kind of communication. Entering into dialogue with another, whether human or divine, is one of the experiences we bring from the preexistence.
Read moreBearing Out Crosses Gracefully: Sex and the Single Mormon
Read more“In a Dark Time the Eye Begins to See”: Personal Reflections on Homosexuality among the Mormons at the Beginning of a New Millennium
Dialogue 33.3 (Fall 2000): 137–151
Rees’s Fall 2000 artice is titled “”In a Dark Time the Eye Begins to See”: Personal Reflections on Homosexuality among the Mormons at the Beginning of a New Millennium.” A straight man and local LDS leader, Rees shares his own experience counseling with LGBTQ members and their struggles, from “gay bashing” violence, most famously the murder of Matthew Shephard, to prejudice and more. Rees talks about his own changed perspective on this issue that started when he was a singles ward bishop in LA in the 1980s and shares what he had learned along the way. Rees calls for a number of steps and changes as a body of the church to improve these conditions.
Read moreEugene England: Our Brother in Christ
Read moreJoseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and the American Renaissance
Dialogue 35.3 (Fall 2003):9a–128
I am a literary critic who has spent a professional lifetime reading, teaching, and writing about literary texts. Much of my interest in and approach to the Book of Mormon lies with the text—though not just as a field for scholarly exploration.