Dialogue: a Journal of Mormon Thought
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
DIALOGUE DIALOGUE PO Box 381209 Cambridge, MA 02238 electronic service requested DIALOGUE a journal of mormon thought 50.1 spring 2017 50.1 EDITORS EDITOR Boyd Jay Petersen, Provo, UT ASSOCIATE EDITOR David W. Scott, Lehi, UT WEB EDITOR Emily W. Jensen, Farmington, UT DIALOGUE FICTION Julie Nichols, Orem, UT a journal of mormon thought POETRY Darlene Young, South Jordan, UT REVIEWS (non-fiction) John Hatch, Salt Lake City, UT REVIEWS (literature) Andrew Hall, Fukuoka, Japan INTERNATIONAL Gina Colvin, Christchurch, New Zealand Carter Charles, Bordeaux, France POLITICAL Russell Arben Fox, Wichita, KS HISTORY Sheree Maxwell Bench, Pleasant Grove, UT SCIENCE Steven Peck, Provo, UT FILM & THEATRE Eric Samuelson, Provo, UT PHILOSOPHY/THEOLOGY Brian Birch, Draper, UT ART Andrea Davis, Orem, UT IN THE NEXT ISSUE Brad Kramer, Murray, UT Colleen McDannell, “Mexicans, Tourism, and Book of BUSINESS & PRODUCTION STAFF Mormon Geography” BUSINESS MANAGER Mariya Manzhos, Cambridge, MA PRODUCTION MANAGER Jenny Webb, Woodinville, WA David Grandy, “‘In Christ All Things Hold Together’: A COPY EDITORS Sarah Moore, Madison, AL Richelle Wilson, Madison, WI Christian Perspective on Quantum Entanglement” INTERNS Geoff Griffin, Orem, UT Gail Houston, “Dreaming in the Age of Trump” Nathan Tucker, Orem, UT Christian Van Dyke, Provo, UT EDITORIAL BOARD Lavina Fielding Anderson, Salt Lake City, UT Becky Reid Linford, Leesburg, VA Mary L. Bradford, Landsdowne, VA William Morris, Minneapolis, MN Claudia Bushman, New York, NY Michael Nielsen, Statesboro, GA Daniel Dwyer, Albany, NY Nathan B. Oman, Williamsburg, VA Ignacio M. Garcia, Provo, UT Thomas Rogers, Bountiful, UT Brian M. Hauglid, Spanish Fork, UT Mathew Schmalz, Worcester, MA Gregory Jackson, Lehi, UT John Turner, Fairfax, VA Join our DIALOGUE! G. Kevin Jones, Salt Lake City, UT Blair Van Dyke, Cedar Hills, UT Find us on Facebook at Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought BOARD OF DIRECTORS Follow us on Twitter @DialogueJournal Michael Austin, Evansville, IN Boyd Petersen, Provo, UT *Molly McLellan Bennion, Seattle, WA Gregory A. Prince, Potomac, MD SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS Joanna Brooks, San Diego, CA Robert A. Rees, Mill Valley, CA PRINT: 1 year (4 issues) $50 | international $70 | seniors/students $35 Sumer Thurston Evans, Salt Lake City, UT Brent Rushforth, Potomac, MD ELECTRONIC (PDF): 1 year (4 issues) $25 Fiona Givens, Montpelier, VA *Karla Stirling, Bountiful, UT DVD ARCHIVE: Volumes 1–44 (1966–2011) in PDF format, $40 Robert Goldberg, Salt Lake City, UT Travis Stratford, New York, NY Kristine L. Haglund, Belmont, MA Jonathan Thomas, Rolling Meadows, IL More titles and special offers available on our website: William S. Hickman, Bothell, WA Morris Thurston, Villa Park, CA Laurie Maffly-Kipp, St. Louis, MO Margaret Blair Young, Provo, UT *Patrick Q. Mason, Chair, Claremont, CA *members of the Executive Committee www.dialoguejournal.com Kyle Monson, New York, NY On the cover: “Transformations” by Lane Twitchell, 2012–16, oil, polymers, pastel, and wax on panel DIALOGUE a journal of mormon thought is an independent quarterly established to express Mormon culture and to examine the relevance of religion to secular life. It is edited by Latter-day Saints who wish to bring their faith into dialogue with the larger stream of world religious thought and with human experience as a whole and to foster artistic and scholarly achieve- ment based on their cultural heritage. The journal encourages a variety of view- points; although every effort is made to en- sure accurate scholarship and responsible judgment, the views expressed are those of the individual authors and are not neces- sarily those of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or of the editors. ii Dialogue, Spring 2017 Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought is published quarterly by the Dialogue Foundation. Dialogue has no official connection with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Contents copyrighted by the Dialogue Foundation. ISSN 0012-2157. Dialogue is available in full text in electronic form at www.dialoguejournal.com and is archived by the University of Utah Marriott Library Special Collections, available online at www.lib.utah.edu/portal/site/marriottlibrary. Dialogue is also available on microforms through University Microfilms International, www.umi.com. Dialogue welcomes articles, essays, poetry, notes, fiction, letters to the editor, and art. Submissions should follow the current Chicago Manual of Style. All submissions should be in Word and may be submitted electronically at https://dialoguejournal.com/submissions/. For submissions of visual art, please contact [email protected]. Submissions published in the journal, including letters to the editor, are covered by our publications policy, https://dialoguejournal.com/ submissions/publication-policy/, under which the author retains the copyright of the work and grants Dialogue permission to publish. See www.dialoguejournal.com. EDITORS EMERITI Eugene England and G. Wesley Johnson Robert A. Rees Mary Lythgoe Bradford Linda King Newell and L. Jackson Newell F. Ross Peterson and Mary Kay Peterson Martha Sonntag Bradley and Allen D. Roberts Neal Chandler and Rebecca Worthen Chandler Karen Marguerite Moloney Levi S. Peterson Kristine Haglund Dialogue, Spring 2017 iii CONTENTS Editor’s Note Boyd J. Petersen 1 ARTICLES AND ESSAYS Reimagining the Restoration: Why Liberalism is the Ultimate Flowering of Mormonism Robert A. Rees 3 Pre-Mortality in Mystical Islam and the Cosmic Journey of the Soul Bradley J. Cook 31 “All Things Unto Me Are Spiritual”: Worship through Corporeality in Hasidism and Mormonism Allen Hansen and Walker Wright 57 Do We Have to Believe That? Canon and Extra-Canonical Sources of LDS Belief Christian N. K. Anderson 79 PERSONAL VOICES The Unending Conversation Frances Lee Menlove 139 Eyes to See Kylie Turley 149 POETRY Solomon the Wise R. Bassett 159 Christus Laura Craner 160 The Holy Ghost in Melpomene’s Closet Elizabeth Garcia 162 The Holy Ghost in Polyhymnia’s Closet Elizabeth Garcia 163 Ajalon Moon S. E. Page 165 Grand Canyon, North Rim Terresa Wellborn 166 ROUNDTABLE Shifting Boundaries of Feminist Theology: What Have We Learned? Maxine Hanks 167 iv Dialogue, Spring 2017 When Feminists Excommunicate Mette Ivie Harrison 183 Mormon Women and the Anatomy of Belonging Neylan McBaine 193 FICTION Le Train à Grande Vitesse R. A. Christmas 203 The Darket Abyss in America William Morris 223 REVIEWS Exploring the Unfamiliar Realm of Religion in Young Adult Literature Jon Ostenson 239 Julie Berry. The Passion of Dolssa Jeff Zentner. The Serpent King Just Saying Mary Lythgoe Bradford 244 Stanton Harris Hall. Just Seeing Faith, Family, and Art Jennifer Quist 247 Jack Harrell. Writing Ourselves: Essays on Creativity, Craft, and Mormonism Asking the Questions Emily Shelton Poole 251 Julie J. Nichols. Pigs When They Straddle the Air: A Novel in Seven Stories The Fruit of Knowledge Mahonri Stewart 254 Thomas F. Rogers. Let Your Hearts and Minds Expand: Reflections on Faith, Reason, Charity, and Beauty Lapsing into Daredevilry Julie J. Nichols 258 Shawn Vestal. Daredevils A Book Full of Insights Benjamin Park 261 Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835–1870 Dialogue, Spring 2017 v FROM THE PULPIT What Does It Mean to Be Truly Christian? Paul Nibley 267 ART Thoughts on Lane Twitchell Brad Kramer 273 CONTRIBUTORS 277 2017 EUGUENE ENGLAND MEMORIAL PERSONAL ESSAY CONTEST 284 EDITOR’S NOTE With this issue, Dialogue begins its sixth decade. To celebrate this mile- stone, we are pleased to present new work from three long-time friends. Frances Lee Menlove was a Dialogue founder and served as its first manuscript editor. Her essay “The Challenge of Honesty” appeared in the first issue, setting an editorial direction for the journal of courageous truth-seeking. Here she looks at Dialogue’s “Unending Conversation.” Bob Rees—the journal’s second editor, past board member, and frequent contributor—provides a prophetic call to “reimagine the restoration.” Finally, we are pleased to publish a new short story from R.A. Christ- mas, whose essay, “The Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt: Some Literary, Historical, and Critical Reflections,” appeared in the very first issue of Dialogue. Christmas served as an editorial assistant in the early years of the journal and has frequently contributed both poetry and prose. Together with the other authors in this issue, these voices demonstrate Dialogue’s commitment to confront the future with optimism, authen- ticity, and vision. —Boyd J. Petersen 1 ARTICLES AND ESSAYS REIMAGINING THE RESTORATION: WHY LIBERALISM IS THE ULTIMATE FLOWERING OF MORMONISM Robert A. Rees Eugene England Memorial Lecture Utah Valley University, March 6, 2015 Not “Revelation” ‘tis that waits, But our unfurnished eyes. —Emily Dickinson1 Tonight I want to challenge some of the conventional axioms of Mormon religion and culture and to propose a more progressive Mormonism. Let me begin, however, with a tribute to my dear friend Eugene England. In the introduction to the festschrift I edited in his honor titled Proving Contraries (which is an apt summary of Gene’s life), I wrote, “Outside of some in the general Church leadership, perhaps no Latter-day Saint of our generation enjoyed such wide and deep affection and respect as Gene did.”2 I imagine that when some scholar writes the history of modern Mor- monism Gene will be seen as one of our most enlightened and influential teacher/scholars. My hope is that what I have to say tonight illuminates some of the ideas that animated his discipleship and exemplifies some of the virtues that governed his life. It has been an enormous loss these past 1. Letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1862–63, Letters of Emily Dickinson edited by Mabel Loomis Todd (New York: Gosset and Dunlap, 1962), 260. 2. Robert A. Rees, ed., Proving Contraries: A Collection of Writings in Honor of Eugene England (Signature Books: Salt Lake City, 2005), xiv. 3 4 Dialogue, Spring 2017 fourteen years to have been deprived of his intellect and spirit.