Armand L. Mauss

ARMAND L. MAUSS {[email protected]} is professor emeritus of sociology and religious studies, Washington State University, now living in Irvine, California. Recently he has also taught courses in Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University. A frequent contributor to Dialogue, he is author of three books on Mormons. His next book, Shifting Borders and a Tattered Passport (a memoir) is forthcoming in 2012. “Rethinking Retrenchment” is a much fuller version of a paper he delivered on June 18, 2001, at the Springville (Utah) Art Museum at an all-day symposium in honor of Richard Bushman on his eightieth birthday. The program for that symposium can be found at http:// mormon-chronicles.blogspot.com/2011/06/mormonism-in-culturalcontext-symposium.html; and http://bycommonconsent.files.wordpress. com/2011/06/bushmansymposiumprogramflyer.pdf.

Mormonism and the Negro: Faith, Folklore and Civil Rights

Articles/Essays – Volume 2, No. 4

Dialogue 2.4 (Winter 1967): 19–40
In this historical analysis, Mauss argues that starting in the 1850s, the church started to deny priesthood and temple blessings to anyone who had even a trace of African ancestry.

Moderation in All Things: Political and Social Outlooks of Modern Urban Mormons

Articles/Essays – Volume 7, No. 1

Saints, Cities, and Secularism: Religious Attitudes and Behavior of Modern Urban Mormons

Articles/Essays – Volume 7, No. 2

Shall the Youth of Zion Falter? Mormon Youth and Sex: A Two-City Comparison

Articles/Essays – Volume 10, No. 2

The Fading of the Pharaoh’s Curse: The Decline and Fall of the Priesthood Ban Against Blacks

Articles/Essays – Volume 14, No. 3

Dialogue 14.3 (Fall 1981): 11–45
Mauss situates the 1978 revelation on the priesthood in modern American historical context. Everything changed for the Church during the Civil Rights Movement when people both inside and outside the Church were harshly critcizing the priesthood ban. When the world was changing, it looked like the Church was still adherring to the past.

The Unfettered Faithful: An Analysis of the Dialogue Subscribers Survey

Articles/Essays – Volume 20, No. 1

Culture, Charisma, and Change: Reflections on Mormon Temple Worship

Articles/Essays – Volume 20, No. 4

Dialogue 20.4 (Winter 1987): 33–76
Mauss encourages an openess about the temple to help better prepare future endowment holders and to create a better understanding among members and nonmembers.

Assimilation and Ambivalence: The Mormon Reaction to Americanization

Articles/Essays – Volume 22, No. 1

The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation and Identity: Trends and Developments Since Midcentury

Articles/Essays – Volume 27, No. 1

Welfare as Warfare: The Mormons’ War on Poverty: A History of LDS Welfare, 1830-1990 by Garth L. Mangum and Bruce D. Blumell

Articles/Essays – Volume 28, No. 1

Mormonism in the Twenty-first Century

Articles/Essays – Volume 29, No. 1

Guest Editor’s Introduction

Articles/Essays – Volume 29, No. 1

On “Defense of Marriage” A Reply to Quinn

Articles/Essays – Volume 33, No. 3

In a reply to Quinn’s article in the same issue, Armand Mauss questioned whether the church was motivated by homophobia or a more benevolent force.

Mormonism’s Worldwide Aspirations and its Changing Conceptions of Race and Lineage

Articles/Essays – Volume 34, No. 3

Maturing and Enduring: Dialogue and Its Readers after Forty Years

Articles/Essays – Volume 39, No. 4

Sonnet to Japanese Spring

Articles/Essays – Volume 40, No. 3

Seeking a “Second Harvest”: Controlling the Costs of LDS Membership in Europe

Articles/Essays – Volume 41, No. 4

Rethinking Retrenchment: Course Corrections in the Ongoing Quest for Respectability

Articles/Essays – Volume 44, No. 4