Thank You, Dialogue
Recently, the editors of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, opened their online archives to permit free viewing of Volumes 1 through 37 (Spring 1966 through Winter 2008). That’s an amazing treasure trove of articles related to “all things latter-day saint.”
If you’ve ever read an article in Dialogue and wished you’d saved a copy, well, here’s a chance to at least read it again. (It appears to be impossible to print the article as it appears on the screen, however, although copies can be obtained for a small fee.)
Of course, I bring this up for my own purely selfish reasons. The Spring 1991 issue (Vol. 24, no. 1) included an essay of mine, “The Temple in Zion: A Reorganized Perspective on a Latter Day Saint Institution.” Back then the Independence Temple was rising from what had been a parking lot just a few months before. I attempted an explanation to LDS readers as to why in the world we were building a temple without an oxen-supported baptismal font in the basement or any of the other typical features of modern LDS temples.
Reading now almost 20 years later, I am embarrassed by some rather dated and parochial parts (a lot has changed in 20 years, after all), although that’s probably fairly common for anybody re-reading a decades-old essay. If anyone is at all interested, it begins on page 86 (just use the link above [or again, here]; the archives requires opening a page at a time).
If nothing else, I was startled by my repeated use of the word “Reorganized.” How thoroughly I’ve become accustomed to “Community of Christ.” Now, how long do you think it will be before an online archive of the Herald is available?