Fall 1981
The Fall 1981 Issue examines significant historical and cultural shifts within the Mormon Church, including Armand L. Mauss's exploration of the end of the priesthood ban against Black members. Lester E. Bush, Jr., Robert J. McCue, and Thomas G. Alexander analyze the evolving interpretation of the Word of Wisdom, examining its transformation from guidance to commandment. Steven L. Olsen discusses Joseph Smith's role in shaping Mormon identity, while Karen Lynn considers the impact of 19th-century Mormon fiction on American popular culture. Additional contributions include poetry by Randall L. Hall, a personal reflection by Mitchell Lee Edwards, and Leonard J. Arrington's reflections on challenges in Mormon historiography.
Dialogue 14.3 (Fall 1981): 11–45
Mauss situates the 1978 revelation on the priesthood in modern American historical context. Everything changed for the Church during the Civil Rights Movement when people both inside and outside the Church were harshly critcizing the priesthood ban. When the world was changing, it looked like the Church was still adherring to the past.
The success of Mormonism’s “Word of Wisdom,” especially its prohibition of tobacco—in promoting Mormon health is now widely acknowledged. Mor mons have shown that they experience what medical science would predict from their lifestyle: a longevity several years greater than non-Mormons, with much less cancer and heart disease.
Joseph Fielding Smith, Apostle and Church Historian, once published an answer to an inquiry about when the Word of Wisdom became a commandment. His response, widely accepted as definitive both then and subsequently, was included…
The status of the Word of Wisdom at the turn of the century is evident from contemporary sources. At a meeting on May 5,1898, the First Presidency and Twelve discussed the Word of Wisdom. One…
Dialogue 14.3 (Fall 1981): 89–100
Joseph Smith’s 1838 account of the First Vision has taken priority in structuring Mormon identity, despite the existence of different versions. This article explores why that version is so meaningful to Latter-day Saints, reflecting on the symbolic strucutre of the account.
Before 1900, novels about Mormons ranged from the amateurish to the slick, from the scurrilous to the rather even-handed, from the realistic to the wildly imaginary. Their one common thread was that almost all of…
“Let’s try the park for a while; the only people at home now are old ladies who slam doors. Maybe we’ll find a family there.” I always enjoyed talking to people in Giardini Scotti, a…
The “words of Isaiah” constitute a body of some of the greatest religious literature in existence, both in an aesthetic and a spiritual sense. As Monte S. Nyman correctly points out in his introductory chapter,…
According to a myth which circulated in Utah during the 1870s, Brigham Young had placed a curse on the town of Corinne and prophesied that the community’s ungodly existence would be short-lived. In Corinne: The…
The challenge of writing religious history is an old one.[1] The ancient Hebrews incorporated history into their scriptures, and Luke the physician is but one of the historians whose writings were canonized in the Christian…
