DiaBLOGue

Orson Pratt: Prolific Pamphleteer

The most prolific and perhaps most influential early Mormon pamphleteer was Orson Pratt. From his conversion in 1830 to his death in 1881, he authored over thirty works on both religious and scientific topics. Influential…

Parley P. Pratt: Father of Mormon Pamphleteering

A few years back fifty LDS academics were asked to list the most eminent intellectuals in Mormon history. B. H. Roberts and Orson Pratt were most frequently nominated. James E. Talmage and John A. Widtsoe…

Ongoing Dialogue

Since accepting the editorship of DIALOGUE last spring, we have had a num ber of close friends ask with an air of incredulity, “I think it’s wonderful, but why would you take on such an…

South of Olympic

If you’re looking for a house in that area and price range,” said the real estate salesperson—and she lowered her voice to a horrified whisper—”You’ll have to go south!” I rested the telephone receiver against…

The Office of Bishop

In a revelation received 4 February 1831, Edward Partridge was called to be the first bishop in the newly formed Church of Jesus Christ. Before that time, the Church’s structure consisted of elders, priests, teachers,…

Quintessential Mormonism: Literal-Mindedness as a Way of Life

No single feature of Mormonism strikes many perceptive non-Mormon observers with greater force than Mormon literal-mindedness. For instance, in his monumental and largely sympathetic monograph The Mormons published in 1957, Thomas F. O’Dea wrote that…

Hold

Gray day with a brown leaf refusing 
at the end of a wind to drop, 
why is the crabbed clinging 
so intricate a part of the dance?