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Volume 47, No. 1

Spring 2014

To start the Spring 2014 issue, Dialogue takes an in depth look at Mormon Universalism and other doctrines unique to Mormonism. This is followed by a collaborative effort between Bryan R. Warnick, Benjamin A. Johnson, and Sang Hyun Kim in "Hospitality in the Book of Mormon," as they take a look at human nature and reciprocal relationships in the Book of Mormon in an attempt to make the scripture more relatable. Then Russell Stevenson looks at male virtue and sexuality within Mormon culture in the nineteenth century while comparing it with where and what they are known to be today. This issue has a myriad of other works including poetry, multiple reviews, fiction, and an insightful interview about the Kirkland Temple as a shared space among those of different LDS communities.

  • Topics
  • book,mormon,mother'sday,masculine

Contents

Articles

The Book of Mormon, the Early Nineteenth-Century Debates over Universalism, and the Development of the Novel Mormon Doctrines of Ultimate Rewards and Punishments



Dialogue 47.1 (Spring 2014):1–23
This conclusion is obviously problematic, as it implies that the early Church repudiated teachings from the Book of Mormon immediate￾ly following its publication. Thus there is a need for a reassessment of the relation between early nineteenth-century Universalism and the teachings of the Book of Mormon and subsequent revelations.



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Hospitality in the Book of Mormon

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Dialogue 47.1 (Spring 2014):24–57
his article will examine hospitality as it is found in the Book of Mormon. We will look at instances when a person (or group) invites an outsider (or group of outsiders) into the home or community, making note of how the hospitality is exercised, what motivates it, what role it plays in the Book of Mormon narrative, and what spiritual or religious dimensions it is assigned.



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Manly Virtue: Defining Male Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century Mormonism



Sexuality in antebellum America constituted a set of contradictions. Men should be steely, resolved, and assertive; women ought to be reserved, flighty, and, under the right conditions, sexually explosive. As historian Karen Lystra has observed, “There are no sexual absolutes. Sexual experience is time-bound,” a fact that holds true for the Mormon experience as well. 



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Fiction

Acute Distress, Intensive Care



Barb’s dying, Carma thinks, and she steadies herself against the chest of drawers as Dan, kneeling beside his sister’s bed, strokes Barb’s face. Barb’s head seems to be rocking slightly on the pillow. Her eyes…



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Two-Dog Dose



Jarring bang. Wheels leap up, rattling the heavy load of black piping destined for the oilrig. The truck rolls on. Oblivious to what it left behind.  On the macadam, a coyote. From its sacrum back…



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Interview

Personal Voices

Sinners Welcome Here (2002)



Driving past the humongous brick building set way back from the street, I do an instant double take. Did I just see what I thought I saw? Did that sign say, “Sinners Welcome Here?” While I’m supposed to be negotiating traffic on my way to Costco, I’m rubbernecking, and I see that the sign says what I thought it said. The words are painted on a shiny plastic, weatherproof banner attached near the top of the building. 



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Poetry

Haiku for the Cat



The fever is on me now.  
Since morning I can do nothing  
but crack pistachios between  
my thumbs and listen  
to the woody tinkle of their shells  
hitting the floor.  
I mutter haiku at the cat 
who bats them as they fall. 



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Crow Games



How high fly the crows? 
Thirty stories up I’ve seen them 
Swimming in currents of air, 
As confident as children in puddles. 



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Evenings in October



It’s the Schubert piece that does it . . .  
tonight you are moved into the dark to come  
where white roots are suddenly remembered,  
growing beautifully out of soil walls of a cellar  
gone half a century . . . white roots  



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Reviews

Prophetic Glimpses of Mormon Culture: Recent Publications on Patriarchal Blessings | Irene M. Bates and E. Gary Smith, Lost Legacy: The Mormon Office of the Presiding Patriarch; H. Michael Marquardt, ed., Early Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; H. Michael Marquardt, ed., Later Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Gary Shepherd and Gordon Shepherd, Binding Heaven and Earth: Patriarchal Blessings in the Prophetic Development of Early Mormonism



With these publications, Gary and Gordon Shepherd and H. Michael Marquardt have contributed immeasurably to the scholarly conversation about Mormon patriarchal blessings. This has been a continuing conversation that intensified in 1996 when Irene M. Bates and E. Gary Smith published their book on the office of Church patriarch. Scholars now have a critical mass of primary and secondary material with which to understand this often overlooked but powerful practice in the LDS Church. Each of these books adds something to the conversation, complicating it in messy, fruitful ways. They illuminate the intersection of the institutional and lived religious levels of Mormonism, an intersection that has been largely unexplored but is receiving increasing scholarly attention. Marquardt’s collection of patriarchal blessings, in particular, enables scholars to examine how, every day, leaders and members created the Mormon faith as a viable and vigorous religious group.



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Theology as Poetry | Adam S. Miller, Rube Goldberg Machines: Essays in Mormon Theology



While in Dallas giving a couple of lectures last June, I met Adam Miller. In response to one of my presentations he asked interesting questions and made statements that made me think. When he learned that I teach at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, he asked if I would be interested in reading his book, Rube Goldberg Machines: Essays in Mormon Theology. Who could resist a book with such a title!



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Sermon

Woman: Joint Heiress With Christ



I’ve been asked to speak on the topic of women who have inspired me, how they’ve helped me, and how I honor them in my life.

I want to start with a remarkable experience I had in this ward, when a group of Primary girls inspired me in a life-changing way. I was teaching the senior Primary about the stories of Jesus, and they were very squirmy so I decided to harness this energy into a spontaneous form of kinesthetic learning. I said: “Let’s act out things people do to show they are following the Savior’s example!”



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Volume Art