Fall 1988
The Fall 1988 Issue delves into various historical, cultural, and theological themes in Mormonism. William A. Wilson examines modern interpretations of the Three Nephites legend, while Kahlile Mehr covers the trials of LDS missionaries in France. Lorin Hansen recounts the historic voyage of the Brooklyn. Melodie Moench Charles calls for a reimagined Mormon view of heaven, and Lee Copeland critiques racial biases in perceptions of righteousness. David Buice analyzes Southern Democrats' reactions to the 1882 Edmunds Act, and Marvin Hill reassesses the "New Mormon History" approach, focusing on works about Joseph Smith and church origins. The issue includes fiction by John Bennion, poetry by Jim Walker and Anita Tanner, and a critical appreciation of Mormon Christianity by John Quiring.
In the 1892–93 issue of The Folk-Lorist, a publication of the old Chicago Folk-Lore Society, the Reverend David Utter, from Salt Lake City, published a short piece entitled “Mormon Superstition.” He recounted Mormon beliefs about…
Short, solid, bull-necked Elder William Tucker, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, would grip your hand firmly and ask earnestly, “How are you, Brother?” (Harvey, April 1986) Elder Loftin Harvey, Jr., several months senior…
On 8 November 1845 Saints in the eastern states gathered together in conference at American Hall in New York City and listened to Apostle Orson Pratt deliver an impassioned call to exodus: “Brethren Awake !!…
Dialogue 21.3 (Fall 1988): 73–85
I used to love this description because my Mormon heaven seemed far superior to this standard Christian heaven that Twain’s Satan describes. Sexual intercourse does have a place in Mormon heaven, though not as an end in itself. Heavenly residents are busy with activities. Those righteous individuals who become gods in Mormon heaven will certainly be using their intellects as they create worlds and keep them running, and they will undoubtedly be learning continuously. Mormonism never suggested there would be continual music, nor continual church or Sabbath days in heaven.
Dialogue 21.3 (Fall 1988): 89–91
A personal account of a racist statement a bishop made about people from India, while author’s adopted daughter was from India.
Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont stood before his colleagues 12 December 1881 to introduce Senate Bill Number 353, the latest in a series of measures aimed at the Mormon practice of polygamy. The Edmunds’…
In 1959, while a graduate student at the University of Chicago, I wrote a review of the historiography of Mormonism for Church History which incorporated the major books and articles from 1832 to 1959 in…
Three weeks had passed since Howard and Sylvia Rockwood last made love. Earlier, before the days of silence, they could have begun casually, prompted by any minor conversational motion, finally drawing close enough for physical…
I recently had an unexpected opportunity to analyze the ideas and experience the worship of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Following four months of intense dialogue with a Mormon intellectual and former…
Ever since the homestead days, when you,
The eldest, baked the bread for barefoot boys
Flushed from the corn for lunch, the care we knew
Was testimony of your oaken poise.
The place they put him seemed extravagant —
Sprawling flowers, hovering crowd, artificial grass
To cover up plain dirt.
The coffin shone, wood lustrous as the new organ
Surprisingly tall, he looks down toward
His six-inch shorter father
And shifts his feet, anxious
For the moment of departure, awkward in uncertainty
I drive by a red farmhouse
in the setting sun. Orange morning
darts through rippled glass.
High-glossed linoleum
The appearance of Mormons in Mexico: The Dynamics of Faith and Culture is cause for celebration. For one thing, an other volume in the beleaguered sesquicentennial series sees the light of day, accompanied by a…
Is Mormon theology a radically novel theology or is it akin to Catholic-Protestant, orthodox theology? White’s new book on Mormon theology asks this question. White lays out two distinct ways of looking at Mormon theology.…
James B. Allen has done us all a great favor by writing this interesting biography of William Clayton, a disciple of Joseph Smith. There are many biographies of Mormon leaders, but few about Mormon followers.…
Few recent books substantiate the major claims of Restoration faith as well as Graydon Snyder’s Ante Pacem. A professor at Bethany Theological Seminary, Snyder convincingly shows that the early church had structures and cultic forms…
At the age of seven Mary Bradford imagined herself presenting a story to a New York publisher, the manuscript “rolled into a scroll and tied with a yellow ribbon” (p. 16). Now in midlife she wonders…
