Volume 33, No. 1

Spring 2000

The Spring 2000 Issue explores the intersections of Mormonism with diverse cultural and historical contexts, emphasizing indigenous communities and early American religious movements. Tania Rands Lyon discusses the discovery of Native "Mormon" communities in Russia, shedding light on the unique expressions of faith that emerge within this cultural framework. Val Rust examines the relationship between Mormonism and the radical religious movements in early colonial New England. In the scriptural studies section, Kevin L. Barney reflects on the Documentary Hypothesis, which addresses the authorship and composition of biblical texts, contributing to ongoing discussions about scriptural interpretation within Mormonism. Carole R. Fontaine delves into the wisdom traditions found in the Hebrew Bible, exploring how these ancient teachings can inform contemporary understanding of scripture. And more!

Articles/Essays

The Discovery of Native “Mormon” Communities in Russia

Tania Rands Lyon

In early June 1998, Sheridan Gashler, president of the Russia Samara Mission, felt moved to place missionaries in a small village called Bogdanovka. This was an exciting change in policy. Early LDS missionary work in Russia had been concentrated in large urban areas where most missionaries could enjoy such civilized luxuries as paved roads, frequent public transportation, telephone lines, and running water. In recent years missions branched into smaller cities, but the Russian village was an altogether new frontier. Bogdanovka, although it is only 100 miles or so from the large regional capital city of Samara, is a world apart.

Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement in Early Colonial New England

Val D. Rust

Mormons believe that forerunners prepared the way for the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ in the latter days. This paper examines a special set of those forerunners, namely, the progenitors of the early converts to the LDS church, whose religious experiences took them through a refiner’s fire so significant and revolutionary that it helped provide their descendants with the disposition to embrace a new, radical faith.

Reflections on the Documentary Hypothesis

Kevin L. Barney

The Editors of Dialogue have invited me to respond to Thomas Doze man’s article, “The Authorship of the Pentateuch,” which appeared in the previous issue.[1] The development of the Documentary Hypothesis is a fascinating chapter…

Wisdom Traditions in the Hebrew Bible

Carole R. Fontaine

Introduction Practical advice on farming, choosing a wife, table manners at court, as well as speculations on the nature of divine justice and the mysteries of nature—these are just a few of the topics which…

Salt Lake Citations

Tim Behrend

A friend writes: In a walking excursion last fall through the old block lying between Fifth and Sixth East, Seventh and Eight South—in a narrow alley behind Charon’s Mexican Bakery—I came across a shop of…

The By-pass

Lewis Horne

If I looked up the road from the irrigation ditch, I could see the church house bumping stiff and dark against the sunset’s blaze. “The old church house/’ people called it now. “The old churchhouse,”…

The Charity of Silence

Todd Robert Petersen

This is the story of my father’s demise. It wanders when I tell it, and I never know when to bring in the polygamy, so I just do and let matters take care of themselves.…

The Rhetoric of Hypocrisy: Virtuous and Vicious

Wayne Booth

[1]I can’t resist beginning with some crude, rude questions. As I look out at you, I see you all appearing as polite, open-minded, virtuous lovers of culture studies, or at least inquirers into what such…

The Missionary Journal of Cectpa Haut

Erika Knight

March 26, 1996

I am sitting in a hotel suite in Moscow. The airport lost our luggage, so we are going to stay here until they find it. Our total flight time was fifteen hours from Washington, D.C., to Moscow. Sister Akers, Elder Hadlock, and I slept most of the time to avoid the kissy movies being shown.

Winter Dies

N. Andrew Spackman

The full third moon of passing
winter rears up
against an x-ray white orchard.
There are tree skeletons.

Joseph to Emma

Emma Lou Thayne

Out of the night of holy election,
Out of the silence, the eloquent silence
Only believing whispers to me:
Follow the guiding of soul-felt selection,

Emma’s Anguish

Emma Lou Thayne

Joseph, Joseph,
How has the night persuaded you?
What bed but this?
What arms but mine?

Thin Ice

Ken Raines

I watch two girls on wheels.
Four neon-green wheels
on each foot. Rollers

Making the Mormon Trek Come Alive | Richard E. Bennett, We’ll Find the Place: The Mormon Exodus, 1846-1848

Craig L. Foster

Author Richard E. Bennet describes his book as:

. .. not so much a study of the train or of the trek, but of a religious exodus of one of the 19th century’s most persecuted and despised groups of religionists—the Latter day Saints—who were bound neither for Oregon nor for California but either for survival or extinction. This was not just another march westward “across the wide Missouri” in fulfillment of America’s Manifest Destiny; rather, it was a destiny in motion yet to be mani fest, for it was not at all certain that this enterprise of Joseph Smith, Jr.—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—would ever survive to live a new day. The story of the Mormon exodus is that of a religion in torment, desperately seeking to save itself from persecution, to rid itself of its own detractors and obstructionists, and to find it self in some unknown valley, “far away in the west.” It was Mor monism in the raw and on the move—forging a new identity while seeking a safe refuge in the tops of “the everlasting hills” (xiv).

A Welcome Arrival, A Promising Standard | Will Bagley, ed., The Pioneer Camp of the Saints: The 1846 and 1847 Moron Trail Journals of Thomas Bullock

Richard E. Bennett

The 150th anniversary celebrations of the exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Rocky Mountains saw the publication of several significant new works in Mormon history. Surely one of the most significant contributions of these is…

Plural Marriage, Singular Lives | Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith

Lawrence Foster

Joseph Smith’s polygamous relationships have been a topic of great interest and controversy among Mormons and non-Mormons alike. The reactions of the women whom Joseph Smith took as plural wives and the way in which…

Mission Complexities in Asia | R. Lanier Britsch, From the East: The History of the Latter-day Saints in Asia, 1851-1996

Glen M. Cooper

As a missionary in Taiwan many years ago, I often reflected on the historical significance of our work. President Hyer numbly reminded us that we were only the most recent phase of an historical process…

Building Cultural Bridges | Jessie L. Embry, Asian American Mormons: Bridging Cultures, and Jessie L. Embry, “In His Own Language”: Mormon Spanish Speaking Congregations in the United States

Paul Guajardo

As a missionary in Denver, I served in a Spanish-speaking branch—a re warding and sometimes frustrating experience. Because of the limited size of the congregation, I wondered about the segregation and whether the Spanish speaking…

Missionaries, Missions, Converts, Cultures | Gary Shepherd and Gordon Shepherd, Mormon Passage: A Missionary Chronicle

David Clark Knowlton

To social scientists, missionaries are a great unknown. Perhaps the most important agents of social change around the globe, they have competed with scholars whose goal is to understand and appreciate people rather than to…

Bringing Balance to Our Historical Writing | Valeen Tippetts Avery, From Mission to Madness: Last Son of the Mormon Prophet

William D. Russell

David Hyrum Smith was Joseph Smith’s last child, born several months after the assassination of his father. He followed his oldest brother, Joseph Smith III, and his mother, Emma, into the RLDS Church and became a…

Evidence without Reconciliation | LaMar Petersen, The Creation of the Book of Mormon: A Historical Inquiry

Polly Stewart

One cannot read or write about the Book of Mormon without acknowledging a position with respect to its truth claims. Even to profess no stake in any such claims is to take a position. People…