Joseph to Emma
March 29, 2018Out of the night of holy election,
Out of the silence, the eloquent silence
Only believing whispers to me:
Follow the guiding of soul-felt selection,
DiaBLOGue
Reflections on the Documentary Hypothesis
March 29, 2018The Editors of Dialogue have invited me to respond to Thomas Doze man’s article, “The Authorship of the Pentateuch,” which appeared in the previous issue.[1] The development of the Documentary Hypothesis is a fascinating chapter…
Winter Dies
March 29, 2018The full third moon of passing
winter rears up
against an x-ray white orchard.
There are tree skeletons.
Mormonism and the Radical Religious Movement in Early Colonial New England
March 29, 2018Mormons believe that forerunners prepared the way for the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ in the latter days. This paper examines a special set of those forerunners, namely, the progenitors of the early converts to the LDS church, whose religious experiences took them through a refiner’s fire so significant and revolutionary that it helped provide their descendants with the disposition to embrace a new, radical faith.
The Discovery of Native “Mormon” Communities in Russia
March 29, 2018In early June 1998, Sheridan Gashler, president of the Russia Samara Mission, felt moved to place missionaries in a small village called Bogdanovka. This was an exciting change in policy. Early LDS missionary work in Russia had been concentrated in large urban areas where most missionaries could enjoy such civilized luxuries as paved roads, frequent public transportation, telephone lines, and running water. In recent years missions branched into smaller cities, but the Russian village was an altogether new frontier. Bogdanovka, although it is only 100 miles or so from the large regional capital city of Samara, is a world apart.
Intricate, Lucid, Generous | Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner, Dancing Naked
March 29, 2018Few first novels in Utah in the last three decades have earned the popularity and notoriety of Dancing Naked. When Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner did a “pre-publication” reading from the book at the Writers@Work conference…
Busing to Kolob | James W. Ure, Leaving the Fold: Candid Conversations with Inactive Mormons
March 29, 2018Years ago, I visit-taught a single mother of three young boys whose grasp of Mormon doctrine seemed patchy, at best. Our so-called “les sons”—punctuated by frequent smoking breaks—were seldom more than lively recitations regarding her…
Good Book about the Good Book | Paul C. Gutjahr, An American Bible: A History of the Good Book in the United States, 1777-1880
March 29, 2018Paul Gutjahr, Assistant Professor of English and American Studies at Indiana University, has written an elegant and engaging study of “The Good Book” in America. Readers of An American Bible: A History of the Good…
One Well-Wrought Side of the Story | Scott R. Christensen, Sagwitch: Shoshone Chieftain, Mormon Elder, 1822-1887
March 29, 2018Scott R. Christensen has made an auspicious entry into the realm of Mormon history with his book Sagwitch: Shoshone Chieftain, Mormon Elder, 1822-1887. Already the volume has won the 1999 Evans Handcart Prize and the…
Missionary Roots of Change | San Larson and Patricia Larson, eds., What E’er Thou Art, Act Well Thy Part: The Missionary Diaries of David O. McKay
March 29, 2018In the century since twenty-five year-old David Oman McKay made his last formal entry in his missionary diary in Glasgow, Scotland, Mor monism has metamorphosed from a small religious group centered in Utah’s Wasatch Front…