Volume 54, No. 4

The opening credits of Heretic immediately immerse the viewer in mystery, as the title appears above a series of cryptic glyphs: 𐐐𐐆𐐊𐐆𐐓𐐌𐐕. To those steeped in Mormon lore, these symbols spell “Heretic” in the Deseret…

Fiction Editors’ Note: As fiction editors at Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, we’re excited to showcase two chapters from Sheldon Lawrence’s novel Heaven Will Find You. The novel follows a man who learns that…

Dear Editor, My compliments to you and Dialogue for the Fall 2024 Roundtable section, “Fifty Years Since Lester Bush, ‘Mormonism’s Negro Doctrine.’” My family and I appreciated relearning that history and evolution. We especially discussed…

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to take a seminar from a professor at my university in the Native American and Indigenous Studies Department, focused on religious and/or spiritual traditions, belief systems, and…

Birds, across cultures and time, hold a rich tapestry of symbolic meanings, entwining life and death, omens and auguries, angels and spiritual guides. They are often seen as carriers of the departed souls, and at times, they are believed to embody those spirits. Adam McLean, a Scottish writer on alchemical texts, notes, “The essential thing about birds is that they have as their domain the air element, mediating between the earthly realm and the heaven world.”

Orange dust blows into my eyes as I step out of the car onto the hot-enough-to-cook-an-egg sidewalk in the Diplomatic Quarter, or DQ as everyone calls it, of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We are a few…

Within the Latter-day Saint cultural milieu, there are phrases frequently utilized during church meetings—from testimonies to talks to firesides—that are so ubiquitous that we should rightfully wonder if such statements actually deserve repeating. Irrefutably, these…

On a late October afternoon, as I stood on my parents’ driveway in the pleasantly chilled autumn air, a tree applauded me. I was twenty-one years old. Just days before, I’d returned home from my mission, too ill to be of any use in that regard. It had been a doomed endeavor from the beginning, but I didn’t know that then. What I did know was that I was home, wearing jeans and no nametag, companionless, and relieved beyond measure for my honorable and very early release.

light reaches beyond
its capabilities from behind
three sisters

Liquid Crystal Display of neon Jell-O molds
Rotating underlit, perpetual planetary oscillation,
Celestial diffraction through gelatin.

There in the city they know all about
laughing by diamond light,
living in palaces,
and delighting in feasts.
Those are things I will never know,
Nothing of precious stones,
Marble houses,
Or overflowing tables.

In this darkening, you watch the aura
of a northwest sky turn lavender blue.
Waverings of new leaves go quiet,
unused senses seem to be opening.

Nights of little sleep, now the morning of the switch
from daylight saving time. In the cold before dawn,
the road I follow bends where the river bends,
its curve of mist ghosting upward like a long exhale.

stout dowager to this tiny grove inside
her little cell
morning echoes

foretelling arrival of winter
the bird begins  to gather debris

He calls out to me in the darkness
He has learned to sleep on his own
But still finds himself restless and yearning
For my mother arms
And my mother warmth

Katie Ludlow Rich and Heather Sundahl’s “first-ever comprehensive history” of Exponent II is a deeply researched and engagingly written volume that reads as much like “a long letter from a dear friend” as the original…

Unique But Not Different: Latter-day Saints in Japan is the result of a sociological investigation into the identity of Latter-day Saints in Japan. Throughout its pages, its three authors seek to elucidate how Latter-day Saints…

Diné dóó Gáamalii. The title of the book is important for understanding both the primary subject of the book and the author. Diné, meaning “the People,” King explains, is a name that the people commonly…

Mormon doctrine plays a scant role in Mary Clyde’s new novel, Journeys from a Desert Road, but Mormon narratives are intrinsic to her characters, their family bonds, and to the journeys of the title. As…

Circles of light crown the peaks of red rocks against black skies. Are they sacred halos gleaming or artificial lights beaming from a UFO? The beautiful cover image of the book Machines for Making Gods…

Given the LDS Church’s recent emphasis on the “covenant path,” it seems fitting that this collection of Mormon short fiction takes up a similar theme: the ordinances (baptism, endowment, temple marriage) that operate as gates…

Matthew Harris has provided the Mormon community with a gift: Second-Class Saints is a substantial work of scholarship based on enormous archival research and makes a compelling case concerning the Church of Jesus Christ of…

It was a pleasure to read and review recent poetry collections by Darlene Young, Elizabeth Cranford Garcia, and Maureen Clark. Each poet in her own voice and with her own hand dissects, examines, and elucidates…

Christmas is Jesus. Christmas is music, too. Even during a pandemic, I’ve had live carolers at my door. When in-person performance isn’t possible, we listen to recordings of choirs performing Handel and his classical Messiah. There’s the comfort of the Vince Guaraldi Trio—piano, bass, and drums—in the background of A Charlie Brown Christmas. There’s even that one radio station that plays Christmas music 24/7 all month long. It’s the station that reminds us that not all Christmas music was composed equally! Though the Gospel of Luke makes no mention of music, when we read of angels announcing Jesus’ birth to shepherds, we often imagine the heavenly host singing rather than speaking: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). And thus, music is tied to the shepherds, the angels, and the birth of Jesus.