Matthew Bowman

Matthew Bowman is the Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University, and the author of The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith (Random House, 2012) and Christian: The Politics of a Word in America (Harvard, 2018). He received his PhD at Georgetown University, and watches a lot of professional basketball.

Toward a Theology of Dissent: An Ecclesiological Interpretation

Articles/Essays – Volume 42, No. 3

My goal here is twofold. First, I want to demonstrate that current notions about dissent in the Church—whether it is good or bad—are inadequate because the language available for talking about dissent is insufficient. Both dissenters and their critics oversimplify and improperly conflate categories, which leads to a great deal of suspicion and mistrust on all sides because we can’t communicate effectively with each other. This deficiency is not particularly anyone’s fault; rather, it indicates that we need a better concept of what dissent is, so that we can talk about it in more subtle ways.

To Bless and Sanctify: Three Meditations on the Sacrament

Articles/Essays – Volume 44, No. 3

Charles Harrell, “This Is My Doctrine”: The Development of Mormon Theology

Articles/Essays – Volume 44, No. 4

Mormon Authoritarianism and American Pluralism

Articles/Essays – Volume 45, No. 2