Luigi Scali, My Friend
April 20, 2018“Let’s try the park for a while; the only people at home now are old ladies who slam doors. Maybe we’ll find a family there.” I always enjoyed talking to people in Giardini Scotti, a…
DiaBLOGue
Passover: A Mirrored Epiphany
April 20, 2018How many years from Bethlehem
Until the awful eloquence
Of wine and lamb
And bitter herbs
Flight
April 20, 2018
Sensational Virtue: Nineteenth-Century Mormon Fiction and American Popular Taste
April 20, 2018Before 1900, novels about Mormons ranged from the amateurish to the slick, from the scurrilous to the rather even-handed, from the realistic to the wildly imaginary. Their one common thread was that almost all of…
Joseph Smith and the Structure of Mormon Identity
April 20, 2018Dialogue 14.3 (Fall 1981): 89–100
Joseph Smith’s 1838 account of the First Vision has taken priority in structuring Mormon identity, despite the existence of different versions. This article explores why that version is so meaningful to Latter-day Saints, reflecting on the symbolic strucutre of the account.
The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement
April 20, 2018The status of the Word of Wisdom at the turn of the century is evident from contemporary sources. At a meeting on May 5,1898, the First Presidency and Twelve discussed the Word of Wisdom. One…
Did the Word of Wisdom Become a Commandment in 1851?
April 20, 2018Joseph Fielding Smith, Apostle and Church Historian, once published an answer to an inquiry about when the Word of Wisdom became a commandment. His response, widely accepted as definitive both then and subsequently, was included…
The Word of Wisdom in Early Nineteenth-Century Perspective
April 20, 2018The success of Mormonism’s “Word of Wisdom,” especially its prohibition of tobacco—in promoting Mormon health is now widely acknowledged. Mor mons have shown that they experience what medical science would predict from their lifestyle: a longevity several years greater than non-Mormons, with much less cancer and heart disease.
The Fading of the Pharaoh’s Curse: The Decline and Fall of the Priesthood Ban Against Blacks
April 20, 2018Dialogue 14.3 (Fall 1981): 11–45
Mauss situates the 1978 revelation on the priesthood in modern American historical context. Everything changed for the Church during the Civil Rights Movement when people both inside and outside the Church were harshly critcizing the priesthood ban. When the world was changing, it looked like the Church was still adherring to the past.
Among the Mormons: A Survey of Current Literature
April 20, 2018The vast majority of the books considered in the accompanying compilation are of a biographical, fictional, doctrinal or inspirational nature. While the biographies and works on local history are generally intended for a rather limited…