Spring 1985
The Spring 1985 issue explores various facets of Mormon intellectualism, authority, and social dynamics within the LDS Church. D. Michael Quinn discusses new plural marriages during the period from 1890 to 1904 and the implications for church authority. L. Jackson Newell poses questions about the role of intellectuals in serving the faith, while Thomas G. Alexander emphasizes the importance of understanding within the Church. Stanley B. Kimball critiques the state of intellectualism in Mormon culture, and Francine R. Bennion examines where intellectual contributions are needed. John R. Sillito and John S. McCormick delve into the relationship between Mormons and the Socialist Party in Utah from 1900 to 1920, highlighting the unique social movements of the time. And more!
Dialogue 18.1 (Spring 1985): 9–105
Quinn shares that even with the Manifesto that officially ended plural marriage, plural marriages were still happening in the church between the First and Second Manifestos. Despite church leaders arguring that no plural marriages were happening, there is evidence to support the fact that both church members and church leaders were entering into new plural marriages.
In the early years of this century,” observed David A. Shannon, “the Socialist Party of America was a young and virile organization that could not escape notice. Far stronger than any contemporary party on the left,…
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it seems, has had little ^ use for poetry that cannot be sung. The chief place of verse has always been the hymnal, and not without reason:…
I had just hung up my topcoat and scarf and tossed my jacket on the f unmade bed when the telephone rang. There was a time when I liked to hear that sound; it meant…
Fern left Relief Society early. She had never done that before, but she had a headache. Or something. It wasn’t really a headache, but it was in her head. Or her neck, or back. It wasn’t…
When I first hold our children,
Lately having labored alongside you,
I promised many things — too many —
Like the alcoholic too late repentant,
When I slid the damask
from its plastic sleeve
to spread it on the table,
the stain throbbed against crisp white.
I keep diaries in my head
At night I write on sealed pages
In dream codes a sort
Of dot-dot-dash Morse himself
Mouth over the reed,
you empty your feelings
into the hollow heart.
These are the pieces left:
Merchants and Miners in Utah is a mis leading title, for Jonathan Bliss’s volume extends far beyond the boundaries of territorial Utah, extensive though they were, to tell the epic story of the Walker Brothers…
The Principle, Kathryn Smoot Caldwell’s first novel, received the significant encouragement of first prize in Randall Book’s 1983 LDS Novel Writing Contest —$500 plus a $1,000 advance on royalties. (Second and third place winners Carol…
“This past winter there has been a strange fever raging here … . It seems to be contagious and it is raging terribly, nothing seems to stop it but to tear up and take a…
There are different ways to look at the world; and faith and reason provide contrasting, sometimes complementary perspectives. Faithful people who equate their spirituality with Church loyalty often find themselves at odds with those who…
A useful beginning for my comments may be found in a quotation from Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-intellectualism in American Life.
I assume an intellectual is anyone who is guided more by intellect than by emotions—leastways that’s good enough for a country boy like myself. By Mormon I mean something like “faithful” Mormon, not smarty-pants intellectuals,…
I’ve found it useful at times to think of Christ as an intellectual in the ser vice of the faith. I find that he assumes and champions the ability of persons to examine and revise…
