Comments on: Three, Part One

By: Jacob J

Jacob J — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 16:20:20 +0000

Well, I made my pitch for why England's paper doesn't deserve to be on the list, but one that hasn't been mentioned is Ostler's The Mormon Concept of God, which was excellent. As J. mentioned, this later became his first book. In addition to the main content, footnote 30 in that paper refers to a personal correspondence with Neal A Maxwell about the issues of God's timelessness which I find myself citing quite frequently.

By: Steve Orton

Steve Orton — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 03:21:17 +0000

How about Poll’s “What the Church Means to People Like Me.” II/4, 107. It was pivotal for me

By: Brad Kramer

Brad Kramer — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 03:40:17 +0000

Blake Ostler’s “modern expansion” BoM article is outstanding. Dennis Potter’s recent deconstruction of the penal substitution model of Atonement is also excellent. Additionally, while I consider Dialogue to be an overall superior journal, there are a handful of Sunstone articles that bear mentioning in the same breath with some of the articles under discussion here–for example Thom Alexander’s “Reconstruction of Mormon Doctrine.”

By: DKL

DKL — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 01:27:33 +0000

I meant to say before I submitted that it’s just plain wrong to limit possible citations of Dialogue to three articles — even under the auspices of a ranking. In fact, nobody should even think about having less than five on the tip of their tongue.

By: DKL

DKL — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 01:21:27 +0000

You’re right about the Lester Bush priesthood articles.

Thomas Alexander’s article on the history of the Word of Wisdom is terrific.

Buerger on Adam-God is great. Buerger on the Endowment is also very good.

Van Wagoner on the myths that Brigham Young created about Sydney Rigdon is essential reading for understanding that politics have played a much larger role than inspiration or revelation in the evolution of church authority.

Also, Jeffrey’s article “Seers, Savants, and Evolution” should be required reading for investigators.

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:49:20 +0000

This is an interesting question, because it highlights one weakness of scholarly archives, that being that things are typically improved upon. Dialogue has published a ton of great cutting-edge material, but frequently it is trumped by a later book by the same author. Still, the archives are free, and that is good. A great example is Irene Bates "Patriarchal Blessings and the Routinization of Charisma" (vol. 26) and her co-authored book Lost Legacy. Though not required reading per se (and a bit flawed), Beuger's stuff is part of the collective understanding in Mormon Studies.

By: Adam Greenwood

Adam Greenwood — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:22:50 +0000

“I was a Teen-Age Mormon.”

By: Kevin Barney

Kevin Barney — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:59:07 +0000

I agree with England and Bush.

A third that I find I’m constantly referring people to is Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, “Joseph Smith: The Gift of Seeing,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 15:2 (Summer 1982):

http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/dialogue&CISOPTR=16574&REC=16