Thoreau wrote in the beginning of Walden, “I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors.” I can roughly paraphrase Thoreau and say, “I have lived some thirty years among the Mormons and have yet to record the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice about how I have managed to do it.”
Dialogue 24.3 (Fall 1991): 21–39
Lyman discusses the political pressures from the United Government which led to the church issuing the First Manifesto.
While living in Philadelphia several years ago, I served for three years as liaison from the Philadelphia Stake High Council to the Philadelphia Spanish Branch located in the Puerto Rican and black barrios of North…
Dialogue 28.4 (Winter 1995): 105–119
This was a prelude to his book-length treatment Same-Sex Dynamics in 19th C. America: A Mormon Example, that looked at “intimacy” broadly defined, before the rise of homophobia in the post-WWII period. It is a fascinating study of changing norms and practices that once allowed for a huge range of bonding practices between people of the same-sex. Quinn himself had come out in the course of researching this article and the book a few years before, and this work remains influential.
Recently I taught the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) in priesthood meeting and was, as always, impressed by its beauty, simplicity, and profundity. It seemed to me as if this was the central…
Editing William Clayton, James B. Allen
A Response: The Politics of Mormon History, George D. Smith
A Reply, James B. Allen
A Rejoinder, George D. Smith
Mirrors tell only the truth, or so they say. And tonight as I stare at my image in the glass, I think I look the same as always: for the past five years I’ve worn…
Dialogue 31.4 (Winter 1999):190–199
It is noteworthy because, instead of laying out the original historical meaning of Isaiah, it reapplies the text to the time of Joseph Smith and to the course of Jewish and Christian history up to his time.
I’m going to risk starting with an impression I will not try to document but suspect many Mormons would share: that in the church, when we attempt to teach chastity to youth (say in Sunday…
The Pentateuch includes the first five books of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). These books separate into two unequal parts: Genesis and Exodus-Deuteronomy.[1] Genesis traces the ancestral origins of Israel. No…