Winter 1993
The Winter 1993 Issue explores various aspects of Mormon history, theology, and personal narratives. Lawrence Foster examines Joseph Smith's role in shaping new religious movements and the psychology behind his religious genius. Mark R. Grandstaff revisits William E. M'Lellin's contributions to the Book of Commandments. Larry D. Christiansen discusses power struggles within the Mormon Battalion. Ronald W. Walker reflects on the significance of Ensign Peak in Mormon history, while Karl Sandberg addresses the challenges of writing the history of John A. Widtsoe. Douglas F. Tobler recounts the journeys of Heinrich Hug and Jacob Tobler from Switzerland to Santa Clara between 1854 and 1880.
Dialogue 26.4 (Winter 1993): 1–22
The analysis that follos is an admittedly speculative personal reflection on elements that need to be kept in mind in understanding the psychological dynamics of Joseph Smith’s creativity.
I suppose we all share the same space at one time or another. One can search out these spaces, as I have. Outside Paris I spent an afternoon mulling about in Malmaison, Napoleon and Josephine’s…
Wedged into the same chair,
my husband and son station
themselves, duplicates
of each other.
Too tired to talk,
my son listens.
Through Perean hills and Arabian desert,
pacing our journey by the pulsing star,
we come here, finally, to this quiet shelter
that houses the holy—to Bayt al-Lahm.
Parchmental stand aspens,
Paper atrmeble accepts scars,
Words healing standing parchmental
1. The sulfurous flame
sunbeams in corners
lightning like cracked glass
the bulb of an idea
your dark eyes
She adds up all the names
people have given her over the years:
‘Vain, difficult, cold.”
Someone once told her that
This is not just another book on science and Mormonism. Mercifully ab sent, for example, are inconclusive and dubious attempts to harmonize different scriptural versions of the Creation with each other and with modern scientific…
Marjorie Newton’s 60-page biography of Charles Wesley Wandell, Hero or Traitor, inaugurates the John Whitmer Historical Association’s scholarly monograph series. Those who have read her prize-winning Southern Cross Saints: The Mormons in Austrailia will be…
Although Hugh Nibley has often argued that there is no such a thing as a Mormon theology (theology being intrinsically incompatible with continuous revelation), a number of Nibley’s followers have produced what in any other…
R. A. Gilbert’s book, Casting the First Stone, is one of an increasing number of written responses to uninformed attacks by Fundamentalists against new religious movements and any other religious group which does not fit…
