Summer 1997
The Summer 1997 Issue examines various aspects of Mormon thought, history, and scriptural interpretation. Dan Erickson reflects on the impact of literalist interpretations in Mormon millennialism, particularly in anticipation of the year 2000. Stan Larson presents an excerpt from an unpublished biography of Henry D. Moyle by Richard D. Poll, offering insight into the life of this prominent Mormon leader. Garth N. Jones shares personal reflections on the "Word of Wisdom," the health code in Mormon doctrine, expressing both challenges and cultural nuances. Sally H. Barlow explores the relationship between psychology and religion, proposing a reimagined approach to dualism that positions psychology as a complementary rather than opposing force to religious beliefs. And much more!
One’s search for meaning usually leads to eschatological inquiry. More than mere theology, millennialism is a way of looking at world history and the destiny of humankind.[1] Beginning with Joseph Smith’s initial religious experience, the…
In 1980-81 Richard D. Poll, vice-president of Western Illinois University and former professor of history at Brigham Young University, was re searching, interviewing for, and writing a comprehensive biography of LDS apostle and member of…
My dear granddaughter, Dolly Sri, I knew you would cause me problems the first time I held you in my arms. My anxiety became real when I saw you win your first gymnastic meet. It heightened as I watched you walk across the stage as a junior prom princess.
I think about religion and psychology all the time. They call to mind a huge quandary based on what appear to be irreconcilable dichotomies: faith versus empiricism (the subjective versus the objective); sin or evil…
The Savior counsels his followers to “[a]sk, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Matt. 7:7-8).
As a young boy I believed in these words with such steadfast sure ness that I actually formulated a list of wishes to bring before the Lord. The adversity of life, however, has taken that simple child-like faith and dashed it against the rocky shoals of reality.
Dialogue 30.2 (Summer 1997): 47–65
Born into a Canadian family living in St. Andrews, Ontario Province, on 20 October 1861 , Richard C. Evans rose to fame and power experienced by few other members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
In his 1955 classic work, Tristes Tropiques, French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss recorded a story of unintended social impact evoked by his introduction of writing to the illiterate Nambikwara of tropical Brazil. Several days after Levi-Strauss…
[Tuesday, November 19.] Brother Duvalier—the branch president—had us out to his farm for dinner tonight. Which is to say, he had us out to milk cows with his farmhand while his wife made us dinner. …
Florence Gradon was a good-looking girl, but her looks were nine out of ten parts spirit. Her skirts swung just so, while she danced, her brown hair liked its ribbons fine, and the great good…
Editing William Clayton, James B. Allen
A Response: The Politics of Mormon History, George D. Smith
A Reply, James B. Allen
A Rejoinder, George D. Smith
Like a storm rowing in. All around tree limbs stagger,
weeds lie flat. Wind and sun like familiars,
canyons nesting in the shadows. Bright feet
never touching down, while the air boils behind her
I am turning the irrigation water
Into my garden
It’s two in the afternoon
The reddening tomatoes jerk up, widen their eyes
In the ghost-smoke of eight thousand feet,
the road back looks deserted.
Below me, a hawk rises,
wings throbbing stillness, and I watch
Summers we paint relocation houses
on the res, beige and grey,
“Navajo white/’ our brushes dripping
Dutch Boy on red Arizona earth.
Their place was a junkyard with Joshuas,
and they’d play Mom and Pop
to any delinquent on the desert.
We’d be forever having
There are no maybes in the desert;
you have to be lizard-quick or shrivel and die.
The Rio Grande is muddy from its occasional pause,
here where survival is yes or no.
At dusk, the pool waits in silence,
found by your feet after you rip up
the map. Suddenly in the tangled grasses
and twilight the birds stop calling,
and the trees finger your face.
Barely a man
he stands trembling
water lapping at thighs in cotton white
right arm to the square
The editors of this book have assembled a plethora of outstanding social science scholarship. The works selected are astute, readable, and thought-provoking. The book is filled with research in almost prose form, as well as…
The publication of Elizabeth Kane’s journal for the months from December 1872 to March 1873 at St. George, Utah, was made possible by the Tanner Trust Fund of the University of Utah Marriott Library. (The…
“Whatever you do, do not prettify me!” This declaration by Walt Whitman to his friend and biographer, Horace Traubel, might have also been in William Hartley’s mind as he finished writing an in-depth history of…
At last, an absorbing sequel to Juanita Brooks’s momentous work, The Mountain Meadows Massacre. Just when Mormon church leaders and scholars alike were ready to accept that Brooks has the last, if not final, word…
