Dear Nathan:
I appreciate your “An Open Letter to the Dialogue Board” (38, no. 4 [Winter 2005]: 227-29). I consider it a sincere and thoughtful expression of an ideal I share: a more balanced, diverse, and inclusive dialogue about Mormon religion and culture. As a former editor of Dialogue (1971-76), I am pleased that, as you say, “you care a great deal about the health and public reputation of Mormon intellectual fora” (227).
“Imagine.” Will Evans’s evocative text begins with an invitation to the reader to enter the Welsh immigrant’s bull pen, roll a smoke with free tobacco plugged on the nailed-down lid of a lard can, and…
Robert S. Wicks and Fred R. Foister selected the title Junius & Joseph to emphasize their thesis that Joseph Smith’s death was a political assassination. The authors point out that the Junius tracts were “issued…
The phone rings once. I think about hanging up. The phone rings twice. I begin to believe my luck might hold out. The third ring proves me wrong. Something is amiss when grown children, adults…
Our firsts and lasts were leaves burned the hour we left. Ted Hughes You could say that my life and The Walker’s life—well, it’s all been a question of firsts. And to be honest, I thought…
Note: This interview, conducted by Dialogue’s editor, introduces Richard J Van Wagoner, whose art is featured in this issue. Richard is a retired professor of art from Weber State University, where he and Levi sat…
Eight times the Lord lamented that it grieved him to lose the branches of His vineyard (Jac. 5). Surely it grieves him to lose the women who have left the Church or quietly disengaged from active Church involvement. It grieves me. I miss them terribly.
For the past six years, I have been engaged in various dialogues best under stood by a quick trip through the editorial correspondence files, a sort of diary (or dia-log) of my term as editor. In that fragmentary record I grope for a synthesis that eludes me. Whenever someone politely asks me what kind of journal DIALOGUE is, I usually fall back on words like quarterly, intellectual, and scholarly.
In a remarkable essay entitled “Beyond Politics” in a recent issue of BYU Studies, Hugh Nibley makes an exciting observation: God not only desires a free discussion with [his children], he encourages it. Further, it is an essential part of his modus operandi for our return to his presence. In his own translation of John 1:1, Nibley illustrates how indispensable this concept was to the very order of things: “In the beginning was the Logos [counsel, discussion], and the Logos was in the presence of God, and all things were done according to it. . .”
Our readers may recall the announcement of our commemoration of Dialogues fortieth year in our last issue. In keeping with that announcement, we publish here two retrospective statements from earlier editors of the journal. One…