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

Kris Wright, Baking a Sacrament Prayer
Matthew Bowman, This Is My Body: A Mormon Sacrament
Kristine Haglund, Holy, Holy, Holy

Finding the Presence in Mormon History: An Interview with Susanna Morrill, Richard Lyman Bushman, and Robert Orsi

Articles/Essays – Volume 44, No. 3

Susanna Morrill: I’d like to start the conversation by asking four framing questions relating to the issue of religious experience: First, are “abundant events” proper subjects of study for historians of religion? Second, how do historians of religions go about studying such experiences within the methodological expectations of the academy? Third, what are the responsibilities of scholars to the believers whom they write about? And fourth, to what extent will, and should, the faith of scholars appear in their work? Richard, could you start start the discussion with the ideas Robert offers in his article?

Can Mormonism Have a Systematic Theology? | Charles Harrell, “This Is My Doctrine”: The Development of Mormon Theology

Articles/Essays – Volume 44, No. 4

This is a wide-ranging and detailed book, consisting of an extensive examination of a wide variety of topics in Mormon theology from the time of scripture to the present. Harrell announces his methodology in the…

Mormon Authoritarianism and American Pluralism

Articles/Essays – Volume 45, No. 2

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.