Spring 1967
Since the inception of Dialogue over a year ago, a crucial role has been played by the Board of Editors in helping to determine which manuscripts should be printed in the limited amount of space available in each issue. In this issue we present an essay by an actor and an exhibit by a group of artists who are struggling with these opportunities and problems. In our lead essay, Ronald Wilcox, an experienced professional actor and playwright who studied both at BYU and at Baylor University before joining a distinguished repertory company, challenges some of the notions about the theater that lead people in the name of morality to apply the same standards of behavior to the play and its actors as to real life. In place of a guest artist, in this issue we present paintings from a group exhibition of young Mormon artists held last December and January in Salt Lake City; Dale Fletcher, who helped organize the exhibit, examines the exhibition's theme, "Art and Belief," and recounts some of the feelings of himself and his fellow artists about the possibilities of a "Mormon" visual art, and Douglas Hill does a critique of the exhibit's contribution to a "visual tradition," which he finds as yet lacking in Mormonism. Also included in this issue is a long narrative poem by Clinton Larson, a poet of growing stature who teaches at Brigham Young University and whose poetic dramas, recently published in collected form, have been performed in a number of cities in the United States. And more!
Late one night last November, after a visit to Utah, I was driving across the New Mexico desert. It’s a long way from Ogden to Dallas, especially in a Volkswagen, but I’ve always found the…
On August 24, 1932, Dietrich Bonhoeffer began an address at the International Youth Conference in Glad, Switzerland, with the words, “The Church is Dead.”[1] Today, 1966, Bonhoeffer is dead, yet the church lives. However, a…
Not infrequently a Mormon convert thinks back on those events and feelings which preceded his decision to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He may wish to recall these things not so…
Dear Sirs: . . . . Dialogue can become a source of intellectual sastisfaction that will complement and augment the spiritual satisfaction abundantly provided by the Church. To become such a source it must be…
give shouting that he swallowed up the moat.(the serpent he devoured and siphoned in)and that he steered the river with no boat. give singing that he made our dusk, a float.(our night become a sphere…
I “Solomon? Since I talked with him I’ve thoughtAgain about trying to make a go of it In Idaho. As I say, this rainy weather In Oregon is looking better and better to me.The first time I…
Legends often live on simply because believers like them. Some people like them so much they want to prove them. Legends may have their origins in real situations and may have relationships to some facts,…
The John Birch Society is showing a film around called “Anarchy, U.S.A.” I saw it at a meeting of Young Republicans at the College of San Mateo on January 10, 1967. The point of the…
The title of the book is appropriate: It is the name of a certain fictional mound or tell—layers on layers of rubble left by successive inhabitants who clustered near a typical water-source in Palestine. From…
The name Hugh Nibley has become common coin of the Mormon realm. The household quality of the name in part depends upon the frequency with which his work appears in the Improvement Era. Since 1948…
My apologia—if one is needed—for this essay may be presented and done with at once. I have been aware, as a member of the Church,[1] of its great resources as a moral and spiritual force…
Professor Snell’s article, “The Bible in the Church,” leaves me with very mixed feelings. On the first page of his essay he implies that his criticisms are intended to be constructive and that he seeks…
In Professor Snell’s article and in the response to it by Professor Sperry, one finds the work of two committed members of the Church, who nevertheless appear to differ greatly on their interpretation of the…
Could there be a “Mormon Art”—something different, vital, worthy of both words, Mormon and art? During the school year 1965-66 this and related questions were being discussed much around the B.Y.U. art department, mostly on…
The recent exhibit of paintings by Mormon artists held at the Salt Lake City Public Library was not, as many people hoped or expected, a confirmation of what might be called a Mormon style. The…
