Dialogue 50.2 (Summer 2017):55–88
Maintaining a conviction of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon
is no easy task in the era of DNA studies, archaeological excavations, and
aggressive attacks by evangelical Protestants. Latter-day Saints cultivate
commitment to the veracity of the Book of Mormon in many different
ways.
In the Book of Mormon, when Ammon is preaching to King Lamoni and his household, we meet a believing Lamanitish servant named Abish, who had “been converted unto the Lord for many years, on account…
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich spoke last Sunday on Daughters of My Kingdom. In this cross-posting with By Common Consent, you can get the notes of what she said.
Click to watch video of the lecture.
Sponsored by Sunstone and Friends of the Marriott Library at the University of Utah
Relief Society sisters now have a new resource—a compact history of the Relief Society called Daughters of My Kingdom. The new manual, which is to be used from time to time for lessons given the first Sunday of each month, is not only unusual for its focus on women but for its chronological organization. Most Church manuals are organized thematically, offering little scope for discussing change over time. Despite its uplifting narrative, this manual may require a new set of skills. As teachers of women’s history know, you can’t just “add women and stir.”
Dear Friend of Dialogue:
The past year has been an outstanding one for Dialogue. I hope you have found articles that speak to you. I must admit that I often turn first to the book reviews—it is a way for me to obtain thoughtful insight into the best of the new Mormon-themed books that are published each year….
Dialogue is more than just a print journal. If you haven’t visited our website lately, please do. You can find all the past Dialogue articles there, as well as pieces on selected Mormon current affairs. You might want to take a moment to click on the “Contact Us” link and skim the biographies and photos of our Board of Directors to see who’s working behind the scenes.
By Review Editor [Cross-posted to In Medias Res and By Common Consent]
Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics is a superb work of social science. David Campbell, John Green, and Quin Monson make exhaustive use of numerous recent surveys conducted by the Pew Forum and Gallup, and a half-dozen surveys which they designed themselves, to produce about as detailed and revealing a look at the political preferences and peculiarities of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in America as probably any group of scholars ever could. While some of the information which the authors make use of has already been reported in American Grace (a blockbuster in the sociology of religion in America which Campbell co-authored with Robert Putnam), here that information is packaged alongside numerous historic observations and other scholarly insights, resulting in something which stands entirely on its own. Of course, as with any academic study that depends largely upon survey research and the self-reporting of those interviewed, the compiled results need to be recognized for what they are: namely, the best conclusions that correlational and regression analysis allows. Still, I think it is fair to say that just as all serious discussions of actual religious practices and behaviors in the U.S. need to take Putnam and Campbell’s work into consideration, this book by Campbell, Green, and Monson is indisputably the new starting point for all serious conversations about American Mormons and politics from here on out.
Over at Pathoes, find the Mormonism: Future of Faith in America online symposium featuring many friends of Dialogue including
Dear Friend of Dialogue,
Dialogue is entering its Jubilee year – can you believe it’s been five decades? We have many debts to pay to our founders and all the authors, poets, and artists who have made Dialogue so special over the past fifty years. While all those people would no doubt generously forgive our debts to them in the spirit of the Jubilee, it seems to me that the best thing we can do is to pay it forward and ensure that Dialogue remains just as relevant, humane, thought-provoking, and forward-looking for the next fifty years as it has been since 1966.
Relevant, humane, thought-provoking, and forward-looking. That’s why I love Dialogue. In a world overloaded with blogs and tweets and memes, isn’t it nice to slow down and read something that has been carefully crafted, peer reviewed, and professionally edited?
Cross-posted at By Common Consent
By Board Member Michael Austin
What began as a hobby horse for me has now graduated to a soapbox. And the soapbox goes like this: Americans and other Westerners really need to start learning things about Muslim religion and culture. And by “things” I mean real things . We are doing quite nicely with broad brush strokes and glaring generalizations, thank you very much.
But as presidential candidates propose to cheering throngs that we ban Muslims from our midst, close down mosques, and otherwise betray the foundational principles of our country, the rest of us have an obligation to understand what is being invoked to scare us.
These special Dialogue podcasts, released in honor of our Dialogue Jubilee on September 30, has writers, thinkers, scholars, historians, advocates, editors and leaders presenting their ideas on what has made Dialogue strong in the past 50 years and what will continue it’s legacy in the coming decades. In this fourth session, Armand Mauss discusses “The Dialogue Dream: From Inception to the Present.”
[display_podcast]
In this fifth session at the Spirit of Dialogue conference, past editors Kristine Haglund, Jack and Linda Newell, Bob Rees, and Charlotte England discuss “The Dialogue Reality.”