Volume 58, No. 2

God began to be a problem soon after Tommy Ericson turned fourteen, when Sister Larson, his old primary teacher who lived down the street, accidentally killed her youngest daughter Callie while backing into the garage…

BUT, you may say, no other name matters—what has naming got to do with personal salvation? I will try to explain.[1] Over many years, I’ve made a point to list the names I find in…

“No Hard Feelings” is an inspiring folk ballad about finding peace in dying. The Avett Brothers ask: “When my body won’t hold me anymore. And it finally lets me free. Will I be ready?” and…

Recall, in your mind’s eye, this sight: two white-shirted figures
      exploring the October hills above Nagasaki. enjoying the freedom
            to talk unencumbered. “Sometimes,” you said,
                  “I think nature has a way of playing Bach to itself.”

I was fasting that day when we went out into the farmlands
around Nagasaki, looking up referrals. After hours of walking,
we found ourselves on a ridge looking down on rice fields
      and a tiny village

Sun-dappled redwood mist
      bandtails flush, wrentits call through fiery green walls.
Chattering hikers returning from the still-inaudible sea
blindly pass a doe in the ferns.

Not all birds fly south
when leaves flame then
fall and nights turn
cold and daunting.

The mystery of flight times and of paths
that pierce the sky, scarring the flesh of heaven,
hangs just above and gently seeps into
this temple to the god of taking trips;

at my house we
don’t talk about Mom
and no one knows why

All things denote there is a God, even the carpet, and
the tile, and the television. Tele- meaning “at a distance” plus “vision.” And yet the
toddler places his palm directly on the screen, patting the prophet’s

What is like grating cheese? Hard
to begin with vehicle before tenor
but perhaps Samson’s falling locks.

After passing another
I’ve been implored a
so fine. I will. This
my pinkie toe to my

For intellectually inclined, scripture-studying Mormons of a particular age, the path of Book of Mormon scholarship has been fairly straightforward. In the second half of the twentieth century, there was the work of Hugh Nibley,…

This collection of essays is the fourth volume in the Book of Mormon Academy Series from the Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University. Earlier volumes focused on Abinadi, Ether and the Jaredite records, and…

Picking up Tales of the Chelm First Ward is rather like picking up a chunky, beaded necklace that you might find at an esoteric gift shop that smells of incense and sells various crystals, tarot…

American Trinity: And Other Stories from the Mormon Corridor is a collection of short stories that grapples with the inescapable loneliness of disillusionment, while offering a glimmer of hope in a conviction that “transcends both…

Kerry Spencer Pray and Jenn Lee Smith have given an invaluable gift to the Latter-day Saint community in gathering and editing this impressive collection of stories by and about LGBTQ+ Mormons. These stories open closets…

Cristina Rosetti’s Joseph White Musser: A Mormon Fundamentalist provides a comprehensive and analytically rich examination of Musser’s life and theology, delving into his influential role in one of the more schismatic periods of Mormon history.…

As a Latter-day Saint who studies sustainability, I have pondered the spiritual practices and beliefs that sustain our faith community over the long term. Prayer, scripture study, worship, and sacred ordinances are core practices that sustain the faith of members and, in turn, the Church itself. All of this happens within the framework of the restored gospel, which provides access to priesthood keys, a living prophet, and continuing revelation. Together, these have enabled remarkable growth since the Church was restored in 1830.