Fall 1997
The Fall 1997 Issue delves into issues of authority, faith, history, and scripture within Mormon thought and culture. Laurie Newman DiPadova explores the concepts of hierarchy and authority, comparing the perspectives of sociologist Max Weber and Mormon leader Lowell Bennion. Mary Lythgoe Bradford profiles a versatile Mormon figure, casting them as a "saint for all seasons." John Bennion reflects on the challenges of navigating between distinct cultural regions, symbolized by New York and Utah, while Marni Asplund-Campbell offers insights into the life and faith journey of C. Thomas Asplund, described as a "quiet pilgrim." In the scriptural studies section, Ronald V. Huggins investigates textual similarities between the Gospel of Matthew and the Book of Mormon's 3 Nephi, raising questions about the Book of Mormon's authorship and its connections to biblical texts. And much more!
Lowell L. Bennion was widely known among Latter-day Saints for his Christlike life and humanitarianism, as well as for his teaching and authorship of numerous church books and manuals.
As Sterling McMurrin put it, “Every religion needs a saint, and Lowell Bennion is Mormonism’s saint.” Why does a church need a saint? People need a flesh and blood example, a person who has attained…
Readers unpacked Brian Evenson’s nationally-published collection of controversial short stories, Altmann’s Tongue, in diverse (perverse) ways. Jerry Johnston, a columnist for the Mormon church-owned Deseret News, observed, “The word ‘macabre’ comes to mind. He is…
I am not a historian. But my limited exposure to the discipline tells me that writing history involves arriving at definitions of “eras,” “cultures,” and “movements.” In my work in literary theory, I have been…
Recently returning from ten years of foreign service in the Middle East, a friend mentioned that he was frequently asked how the United States successfully excludes religion from politics. My friend noted that to Middle…
Lately I can’t get over the feeling that there is a man in my bed: a big man with thick, wavy hair and a broad, barrel chest that goes up-and down, up-and-down all night long…
Dialogue 30.3 (Fall 1999):90–103
To average LDS church members in 1909, Roberts’s New Witnesses for God substantiated their beliefs and further embellished his stature for them as a historian and defender of the Book of Mormon. But only thirteen years later Roberts was to change his mind and that dramatically.
I was reading the other evening from an old and friendly book by the late George Sheehan entitled Running and Being: The Total Experience, published in 1978 by Simon and Schuster of New York. This…
During his twenty years from 1951 to 1971 as seventh president of BYU, Ernest L. Wilkinson molded the lackluster Provo school into a showplace of LDS educational values. “More than any other single cause,” his successor observed, “[Wilkinson’s] remarkable and relentless leadership … is the key to the present stature of Brigham Young University.”
[1]In 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon (hereafter BOM) the resurrected Jesus Christ repeats in large part the famous Sermon on the Mount, but this time before a New World audience. The Sermon on…
From its beginnings in the spring of 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has grown to more than 9 million members and now adds a million new converts worldwide every three years.…
“It might not be a problem,” she said to her husband before rolling onto her stomach with a pillow clutched in her arms. She was tired from crying and wished sleep would overcome her. Though…
For Baldomero and Adeena My real name is Carlos, but ever since I turned eight everyone calls me Charlie. That’s the name I received from Allen and Johnson, the first two Mormons who ever set…
Did I hold the tiny Chinese shoe
or simply gaze at it
encased in museum glass
in the old mining town
Days after his death, I felt him
newly jovial alongside me. And weeks later,
when I again dreamed him young,
handing me a pail of watercress,
The straw of the cut grain
Gold mounding the hill
On the way down from my house
On the mountain
He squints and turns the beam around,
swapping it end for end. He runs
his eye down the length of the crown
and sees an overall design
for Jeffrey Montague
Your wondering is over.
A radiance has taken you.
Now part of the council of all beings
When I saw the title Mormons in Transition, I thought perhaps Dialogue had given me the book because the author intended a word-play on my Mormonism in Transition. I was quite mistaken. Leslie Reynolds started…
This award-winning book by Professor Leo Lyman of Victor Valley College is the product of many years of research and writing. He takes the reader through diaries, letters, records kept by church clerks, newspaper accounts…
Irwin Altman, of the University of Utah, and Joseph Ginat, of the University of Haifa, one a social-environ mental psychologist, the other an anthropologist, studied twenty-seven contemporary polygamous families in the American West. They start…
