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Making Visible the Hand of Ritual | Devery S. Anderson and Gary James Bergera, eds., Joseph Smith’s Quorum of the Anointed, 1842–1845: A Documentary History; Devery S. Anderson and Gary James Bergera, eds., The Nauvoo Endowment Companies, 1845–1846: A Documentary History; and Devery S. Anderson, ed., The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History

March 16, 2018

Although we may not know it, we live our lives immersed in ritual. Many of our daily exchanges with other human beings are ritualized. We often categorize and compare religions by referencing how highly structured, or not, their liturgical worlds are. I grew up being told that Mormons avoided ritual because it connoted empty practice and vulgar symbolism. The truth is, however, that Mormon temple worship is among the richest symbolic systems of worship in Christianity. 

Mormon Authoritarianism and American Pluralism

March 16, 2018

Russell: I wanted to start off this conversation by asking David about the subtitle of his book, “How Religion Unites and Divides Us.” That concern over unity and division has been a serious one for the Mitt Romney campaign. He’s made efforts to bridge divides in order to make his candidacy appealing to a particular segment of conservative Republican primary voters who, generally speaking, have not looked well upon Mormons.

Field Walking

March 16, 2018

Jennifer is a mother of three—Sadie in high school, Carson in middle school, Jordan in elementary—which means weekdays start at 6:00 A.M. and quickly unspool, devolving into a mad scramble of showers and hair dryers…

The Afternoon Hour

March 16, 2018

You colored me 
sienna, azure, 
a shape I was becoming, 
a bird, perhaps, 

Atlanta to Salt Lake

March 16, 2018

Prose will not capture some people, the way 
they drift. You can only see them dragging 
their furniture through Wyoming night, 
down a dark throat of road, the ice 

Revelation

March 16, 2018

I am ten, sitting on your sofa. 
I watch as you paint and talk. 
Your voice is a swallow, 
which sometimes loops through the Andes, 

After Her Stroke

March 16, 2018

Above this cold chair 
they say vegetable. Voices like calves 
bawling for their mother’s teats. 
I think yellow squash, summer, 

Finding Place

March 16, 2018

A fire in the pasture undulates
of blue and white and yellow flower,
a fire like a snake, it would seem, iridescent 

Runaway

March 16, 2018

A bus token jingles 
against the nickels and dimes 
in the pocket of his Pendleton coat 
as he lingers at the door 

Mass Transit Madonna

March 16, 2018

She looks around wondering if
The driver remembers her stop.
She does not speak to me
But bends her white neck