DiaBLOGue

Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature

April 30, 2018

The bibliographical listing which follows includes books, pamphlets and reprints on Mormon topics, most of which were published in 1970. Because of the time lag between the last book bibliography printed in Volume 5, No. 1 and this issue the following bibliographical listing is longer than usual. We could have eliminated some of the ephemera but decided that this would detract from the value of our service. Rather than resort to paring the bibliography, the superfluous introduction has been minimized and concludes here.

How Lovely Was the Morning | Milton V. Backman, Joseph Smith’s First Vision: The First Vision in its Historical Context

April 30, 2018

Intensive research in the area of Mormon origins in New York in recent years has resulted in a significant addition to the source material available to scholars. One who has contributed significantly to this effort…

The Loss of Transcendence: Reflections on the Contemporary Religious Crisis | Thomas F. O’Dea, Alienation, Atheism, and the Religious Crisis, and Thomas F. O’Dea, The Catholic Crisis

April 30, 2018

The word “crisis” usually signifies a crucial point or situation in the course or history of something. It implies an unstable condition in a certain state of affairs in which an abrupt and decisive change…

Joseph Fish: Mormon Pioneer | John H. Krenkel, ed., The Life and Times of Joseph Fish, Mormon Pioneer

April 30, 2018

A review of this book is naturally divided into two phases: Joseph Fish as an observer and recorder of his times, and John H. Krenkel as editor of Mr. Fish’s voluminous writings. Since the latter…

Free Masonry at Nauvoo | Mervin B. Hogan, Founding Minuates of the Nauvoo Lodge, U.D.

April 30, 2018

This small publication makes available in useable form the printing of two documents which deal with the first Masonic Lodge organized at Nauvoo and the rapidity with which it grew. At Nauvoo in 1841 there…

James J. Strang and the Amateur Historian | Doyle C. Fitzpatrick, The King Strang Story: A Vindication of JAmes J. Strang, the Beaver Island King

April 30, 2018

In the field of Mormon history, perhaps more so than in other areas of historical inquiry, some excellent contributions have been made by “amateurs,” as the holders of the Ph.D. are inclined to call those…

Courage | Courage: A Journal of History, Thought and Action

April 30, 2018

Robert Flanders, an exceptionally articulate and perceptive insider in RLDS matters, introduced readers of the Autumn, 1970, issue of this journal to the pilot issue of Dialogue’s RLDS cousin, Courage. What follows is an analysis…

In Good Conscience: Mormonism and Conscientious Objection | Gordon C. Thomasson, ed., War, Conscription, Conscience and Mormonism

April 30, 2018

It is not without some irony that one considers both the format and source of this collection of materials—the almost apologetic tone in which both the collection and so many of its individual pieces present…

Winter Solstice

April 30, 2018

The messages come early in the morning,
by means of a dream
(but young men have their visions),
or struggle towards decision through a stream of indecisions,
or real — or imagined — pain

The Comforter

April 30, 2018

The argument holds:
the love of God is lonely as time
and the lines of the world are drawn precise and clean:
nothing transcends the dark but the dark.