Winter 2007
The Winter 2007 issue begins with Nathan Oman defending the authority of church doctrine, and sets out to clarify the hurdle members of the church face in differentiating what is and is not doctrine. This is followed by Ethan Yorgason who explores communication as it pertains to religion, specifically the evolution of our communication and examining of our eternal yearning for deep connection with each other. These are followed by a look at the dynamic of church in Bolivia and Finland by David Clark Knowlton and Kim B. Ostman, respectively. Finally, we have a large collection of poetry, several works of fiction, and a few reviews.
Authority is a key concept in Mormonism. If one were to ask most Mormons what makes their religion different from ordinary Christianity, many—perhaps most—would respond that Mormons believe in continuing revelation, modern prophets, additional scripture,…
“John Durham Peters may well be the most original thinker in the broad field of communication and media studies in the United States.” So claims Michael Schudson, professor of communication at the University of California, San Diego.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a strong authority structure. Power seemingly originates at the center of the Church, with the prophet and apostles, and radiates outward from there. This system of authority developed in the context of the Church’s efforts to colonize the U.S. Intermountain West, in its struggles with the U.S. federal government, and in its shift from a village to a suburban faith. Now this system must take account of its growth in many countries.
Dialogue 40.4 (2007): 70–105
The purpose of this article is to begin filling that gap by discussing some of the publicity accompanying the recently built Helsinki FinlandTemple, located in the southern Finland city of Espoo.
This is how I remember it. The morning before my business flight to England, our two-year old daughter, Myra, started shrieking as if a Ninja assassin had infiltrated her room. I wrapped a pillow around…
Patty Lou looked out the door. She was waiting for her grandson, Robert, to come. She hadn’t seen him since her ninetieth birthday party three months earlier, when the whole family had come out to…
David Timmins, A Neglected Chronicler
Kirk D. Hagen, Science/Religion Complement
Susanne Müller-Schröter, Praise from Afar
Michael Fillerup, Celestial Sex?
In June 2004, I found myself, late on a Saturday night, climbing underneath the dressing room doors of the Manhattan New York Temple. Audio/visual equipment for the next morning’s temple dedication blocked most of the dressing room doors, but my goal was to reach every locker in both the men’s and women’s dressing rooms. Each key needed to be labeled with the corresponding locker’s number, and then a spare key had to be placed in the temple’s facilities closet.
In the fall of 1990, I was retired and we were back in academia fulltime at BYU: Carol was studying anthropology and I was studying English. We went to the University of Utah to listen…
The Word was made Flesh
and the Flesh made Words.
He fed the Five Thousand
on words shaped like loaves
For them,
there was no between
they believed the tale
and trekked to testify
and walked and walked
You light between tall trees, never trip
on roots—and yet leave heavy footprints.
Bounding toward the surf, you pause for me:
together we will touch the sacred.
The boy, sixteen, is taller than his mother, taller than
the creaky man with shining eyes and trembling hands.
Their shovels grate rock and gravel to fill
the grave she’d scoff empty of their grief—
“Hey, guys, I’m with God!” she’d proclaim.
“I’m not here, guys! I’m with Jeeeeezus, singing!”
Most of my life I’ve believed what these eyes see
these hands can touch,
that seeing and touching—being touched—
ends when they nail the coffin lid on.
Wayne C. Booth’s autobiography is unusual for its genre. My first response, quite frankly, was disappointment. Unlike some authors who deem their life stories important enough to publish, Booth chose not to celebrate his tremendous…
The Marrow of Human Experience collects seventeen of William A. (“Bert”) Wilson’s essays from three decades of a distinguished career. The topics of the essays vary, but all of them reflect, in one way or…
Kevin Holdsworth is a real salt-of-the-earth Wyoming transplant much like my alkali-of-the-earth ancestors who settled the Big Horn Basin in 1900. A bona fide naturalist-environmentalist, he fearlessly explores trailheads in the mountains around him, speaking…
Anne Muñoz resides in Salt Lake City with her husband. Trained in art and textile design, she worked as a freelance graphic artist for many years but continued to produce her own artwork, taking part…
