Winter 2022
The Winter 2022 Issue begins with an important analysis by Eliza Wells on "Quoted at the Pulpit: Male Rhetoric and Female Authority in Fifty Years of General Conference." This is followed by "The Production of the Book of Mormon in Light of a Tibetan Buddhist Parallel" by Tanner Davidson McAlister and "The Garden Atonement and the Mormon Cross Taboo" by Jeremy Christiansen. And find our Bodies of Christ Writing Contest winners with their gorgeous and fascinating essays, poems and fiction pieces. Purchase single issue here.
In her 2020 address to the worldwide membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Primary general president Joy Jones declared, “President Russell M. Nelson taught, ‘It would be impossible to measure the…
The American history of Joseph Smith looks for causes: what led Joseph Smith to think as he did? Comparative, transnational histories explore the limits and capacities of the divine and human imagination: what is possible…
Michael Reed’s 2012 book Banishing the Cross: The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo sets out an excellent account of the uncomfortable relationship between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the core symbol…
Editor’s Note: In 2021, Dialogue hosted a writing contest titled Bodies of Christ with the following parameters: Dialogue seeks submissions of poetry (up to 100 lines), short fiction (3500–6000 words), and personal voice (nonfiction, narrative…
Never learn to play the organ, the old woman told me. I should call her Sister something, but I don’t remember her last name. Never learn to play, she told me. Once you do you’re…
Dear President Russell M. Nelson, For centuries, the pope has been addressed as Your Holiness, and they call the Dalai Lama the Enlightened One, and that Hindu Bhagwan fellow is the Fortunate One, and I have…
Trying to get to the nursery proper and all of the blooming plants—bright colors, heady smells, early summer at its best—Mona almost walked past his table. It was one of those fold-up numbers with foldout…
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. —Romans 12:2 One spring weekend, with a six-month-old and a new career, I found myself dipping into depression,…
They came to us just before spring arrived, at the same time I began putting seeds into the ground in my garden. Lettuce, spinach, arugula. The ground was just getting warm enough to welcome some…
For by the power of my Spirit created I them; yea, all things both spiritual and temporal. —Doctrine & Covenants 29:31 The therapist I had been seeing for my eating disorder had me take two…
I desire to be to the Eternal Goodness what his own hand is to a man.—Theologica Germanica i. What the Right Hand Is Take my right hand—the index finger crookedfrom a long-forgotten break; the dintwhere…
Enter into Her gates with thanksgivingand into Her courts with praise.—Psalm 100:4 1.Swirl of gold gleaming in our daughters’ eyes.Amen. Whorl of cirrostratus haloingthe moon. Amen. Your fingerprints areeverywhere. Lady of Ice. Lady of Sand.of…
Shock of agingin a wooden sculpture—more than yearsdisplayed here,her gauntand weathered faceportraying time had its way—sunken eyes,broken teeth,parched and haggard lips. The cathedralof her handsforms a gothic archbelow her chinsuggesting prayer,her frail body embracedby heavy…
Queerness—the lived identity of LGBTQ+ and non-normative people—and Mormonism—the theological and social structures adhered to by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—always seem to be at odds. Blaire Ostler’s Queer Mormon Theology: An…
Of the legacy of Joseph Smith, historian Bernard DeVoto wrote in 1936, “The vision perishes; it is the vertigo that endures.” Reading the novel The Prophet’s Wife by Libbie Grant is to feel that same…
