Winton Night Walks
April 16, 2018At night along the canals
Dad was best.
Beside narrow dusty tractor roads
Slow dark waters,
DiaBLOGue
Who Came in Second?
April 16, 2018My late father-in-law, Anchor Luke Clegg, often told the following story at family gatherings: “My direct relative, and yours too, was the second convert in the British Isles. He would have been first, but he…
Why Were Scholars Misled? What Can We Learn From This?
April 16, 2018In the May 1986 Mormon History Association meetings, a panel of historians and archivists explored the impact of the Mark Hofmann documents on the LDS and RLDS churches and views of their common origin. Soon…
August 6
April 16, 2018“Go get dressed. You’re no man for this army!”
I went, thanking for the first time the crook
In my spine that stopped me buck naked
From buck privacy, and took me back to you
Twenty Years with Dialogue: A Tribute to Dialogue
April 16, 2018I could justly praise DIALOGUE for many qualities . But for the sake of brevity I will concentrate upon a single overriding virtue. DIALOGUE makes my religion interesting. When I was a boy, I believed…
Twenty Years with Dialogue: To Give the Heart: Some Reflections on Dialogue
April 16, 2018While I was on my mission in France, I received number 1, volume 1 of a publication I had never heard of before—a chunky little journal in a bright blue cover called DIALOGUE. It was…
Twenty Years with Dialogue: Dialogue’s Valuable Service for LDS Intellectuals
April 16, 2018Many of you will find it difficult to understand the enormous importance DIALOGUE had to my generation and to young Latter-day Saint readers at the time of its founding—those between the ages of twenty and…
Twenty Years with Dialogue: On Building the Kingdom with Dialogue
April 16, 2018In the Spring 1987 issue of DIALOGUE, the first of the twentieth-anniversary issues, I was referred to as “the founding editor of DIALOGUE.” That is not true. I was merely one of a group of…
To a Modern Isaac
April 16, 2018I’m no Abraham.
I’ve bowed to a few idols in my day —
Just somewhat unintentioned.
Sacrificing children to idols
Mormonism and Eastern Mysticism
April 16, 2018By adopting the above-cited definition of mysticism, the compilers of the “Topical Guide” (LDS Edition 1979) distance Mormonism from a religious heritage which is perhaps as old as any other of record. The most obvious differences between Mormonism and mysticism are ones of form, and not necessarily of doctrine. The Church organization is both pervasive and extensive, whereas mystical practices are generally much less formal. Mormonism accepts a prophet as head of the Church organization which is endowed with divine authority through an organized priesthood, whereas many mystical traditions manifest a strong non-institutional tendency and go only so far as to incorporate the notion of a “guide,” a leader who does not speak with divine authority but is instead familiar with one path to God.