Stephen L. Tanner
professor of English at Brigham Young University.
Articles
Toward a Positive Censorship
The argument over censorship and pornography is necessarily a muddled one. The factors involved are matters of taste and principle which do not lend themselves to simple logical treatment. The matters of taste concern aesthetic…
Read moreObscenity and the Inspired Constitution: A Dilemma for Mormons
One of the most prominent tenets of Mormonism emphasizes moral purity as essential to the Christian life. Self-mastery over physical appetites and passions is regarded as a fundamental aspect of the doctrine of eternal progression;…
Read moreSpiritual Problems in the Teaching of Modern Literature
There are certain problems which a Mormon must cope with in teaching any secular literature. What does he do, for example, with a literary work which expresses ideas and attitudes in opposition to his theology?…
Read moreSpiritual Empiricism
What is the most important ingredient of religious conviction? This question, whether consciously posed or not, is a fundamental one for anyone who has tried to cultivate religious faith. We admire men and women of…
Read moreWe Are What We Remember | Donald Marshall, Frost in the Orchard
Wright Morris once said, “The ‘subject’ of Wolfe, Hemingway, and Faulkner, however various the backgrounds, however contrasting the styles, pushed to its extremity, is nostalgia.” He should have included Fitzgerald, and even then the list…
Read moreA Rummage Sale with Music | Donald R. Marshall, The Rummage Sale: A Musical in Two Acts
It is an unusual talent that can write a collection of short stories, transform them into the script of a musical, compose and direct the music (songs and lyrics), and play the accordion, organ, and…
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