Margaret Merrill Toscano

MARGARET TOSCANO {[email protected]} is an associate professor of classics and comparative studies at the University of Utah. Her research centers on myth, religion, and gender in both ancient and contemporary contexts. She is the coeditor of Hell and its Afterlife: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Routledge, 2010). She has published extensively on Mormon feminism for over thirty-five years, including a recent chapter responding to the Church’s essay “Joseph Smith’s Teachings about Priesthood, Temple, and Women” in The LDS Gospel Topics Series (Signature, 2020).

In Defense of Heavenly Mother: Her Critical Importance for Mormon Culture and Theology

Articles/Essays – Volume 55, No. 1

Dialogue 55.1 (Spring 2022): 37
Marginalizing God the Mother does not solve the problems raised by Mormonism’s doctrine of divine and human embodiment. It merely diminishes femaleness as a reflection of divinity. We do not need fewer images to understand God; we need more. Critics of Heavenly Mother have not fully grasped the negative consequences of moving toward a God beyond gender

Beyond Matriarchy, Beyond Patriarchy

Articles/Essays – Volume 21, No. 1

Dialogue 21.1 (Spring 1988): 34–59
BECAUSE MORMONS don’t yet have a strong tradition of speculative theology, I want to explain some of my objectives and methods in writing this essay. My chief purpose is to make symbolic connections, to evoke families of images, and to explore theological possibilities.

If Mormon Women Have Had the Priesthood since 1843, Why Aren’t They Using It?

Articles/Essays – Volume 27, No. 2

Dialogue 27.2 (Summer 1994): 231–245
In the brief essay
which follows, I do not reassert the arguments supporting women’s right
to priesthood, but focus on certain problems raised by the assumption that
women have priesthood authority.

Scripture, History, and Faith: A Round Table Discussion

Articles/Essays – Volume 29, No. 4

If I Hate My Mother, Can I Love the Heavenly Mother?

Articles/Essays – Volume 31, No. 4

Dialogue 31.4 (Winter 1998): 31–42
A series of questions began to occur to me: If I hate my mother, can I love the Heavenly Mother? If I hate my mother, can I love myself? If I hate God, can I love myself? If I hate myself, can I love my mother or theHeavenly Mother? I wanted to put these questions in the sharpest terms possible—love/hate. There was no room for ambivalence at this point. I had to let myself feel my strongest and darkest feelings, about mymother, about myself, and about God.