Recommended Reading: Mormon Studies Journals Edition!

Did you know that University of Illinois Press publishes three different Mormon Studies journals? Read on to learn more about Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Journal of Mormon History, and Mormon Studies Review, access freely available scholarship, and listen to informative podcast episodes!

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 published by the Dialogue Foundation and 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 achievement based on their cultural heritage. Submit to the journal here.

The Journal of Mormon History examines the Mormon past through a variety of perspectives, including but not limited to Mormon studies/religious studies, cultural history, social history, intellectual history, reception history, sociology, economics, geography, political science, women’s studies, material culture, race studies, and folklore. The Journal of Mormon History is the official journal of the Mormon History Association. Submit to the journal here or subscribe here.

The Mormon Studies Review tracks the vibrant, varied, international, and interdisciplinary academic engagement with Mormon institutions, lives, ideas, texts, and stories. It chronicles and assesses the developing field of Mormon studies with review essays, book reviews, and roundtable discussions related to the academic study of Mormonism. Submit to the journal here or subscribe here.

RECOMMENDED READING

You can read selected articles from Journal of Mormon History and Mormon Studies Review for free for a limited time. Plus, with Dialogue being fully open access, you can enjoy its content any time (read on for some ideas if you don’t know where to start!).

Temporarily Free-to-Access Articles

Free from April 1, 2025 – June 30, 2025:

“A Hope Fulfilled: A Brief History of the Mormon Esperanto Society” by Rachel Meibos Helps (Journal of Mormon History, Vol. 50, Iss. 4)
Helps examines the 1980s missionary projects of the Mormon Esperanto Society (“Por Esperanto Mormonaro” or PEM) that aimed to reach behind the Iron Curtain and shows how an ideological confluence of Mormonism and Esperantism drove PEM members’ commitment to bring them together in an Esperanto translation of selections of the Book of Mormon.

“Technologies of the Selfie: Mormon Influencers and the Performance of Gender Online” by Kate Davis (Mormon Studies Review, Vol. 12)
This essay uses Mormon women who act as social influencers to demonstrate how new and developing online spaces expand the possibilities for religious expression, power, and dialogue while also constricting the boundaries for what it means to be a publicly legible Mormon woman.

Free from July 1, 2025 – September 30, 2025:

“Mormon-American Nationalism and the Religiopolitical Art of Jon McNaughton” by Nicholas B. Shrum (Journal of Mormon History, Vol. 50, Iss. 2)
In this article, Shrum argues that McNaughton’s paintings represent an influential Latter-day Saint contribution to a nationalistic cultural movement that conflates patriotism with a religious devotion to Constitution worship, far-right conspiracy theories, Mormon exceptionalism, and white supremacy.

“Contemporary Temple Art and Landscapes of the Sacred” by Colleen McDannell (Mormon Studies Review, Vol. 11)
McDannel discusses the history and practices behind art placed in Latter-Day Sait temples and the emphasis on natural landscapes in this art, unique in Christian art history.

Free from October 1, 2025 – December 31, 2025:

“The Battle of Nauvoo” by David L. Herron (Journal of Momon History, Vol. 50, Iss. 1)
This article relies on accounts from the Church History Library to tell the story of the Battle of Nauvoo from a firsthand, Latter-day Saint perspective in the voices of the participants themselves.

“Startup Culture: MLMs, Mormons, and Entrepreneurship” by Deborah Whitehead (Mormon Studies Review, Vol. 10)
In this essay, Whitehead investigates what it is about Latter-day Saint “culture” that might help to explain the disproportionately high concentration of both MLM companies in Utah and LDS members who work for them.

Free from January 1, 2026 – March 31, 2026:

“The Pure Language Project” by Michael MacKay and Daniel Belnap (Journal of Mormon History, Vol. 49, Iss. 4)
This article calls for a reassessment of these theories by suggesting that the Egyptian language Documents were not a new project that began in 1835 but part of an ongoing project that may best be referred to as the “pure language” project that started in 1832, with roots as early as 1827, which was aimed to produce a more efficient form of communication that would reflect the cosmic scope of the newly restored gospel and the role of the priesthood in that cosmos

“The Women’s Ordination Movement in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: Historical and Sociological Perspectives” by Nancy Ross, David J. Howlett, and Zoe Kruse (Mormon Studies Review, Vol. 9)
The authors seek to acquaint readers with primary and secondary sources for studying women’s ordination in the RLDS Church and bring sociological and historical context to women’s ordination in the RLDS Church.

Permanently Open Access Articles

Dialogue is completely open access, so all the articles published in this journal are permanently available for free online. Below is a selection of four recent scholarly articles, but Dialogue also publishes roundtables, “Personal Voices” essays, fiction, poetry, and reviews.

“Gethsemane and Atonement Again” by Grant Adamson (Dialogue, Vol. 57, Iss. 3)
Adamson responds to Jeremy Christiansen’s 2022 Dialogue article “The Garden Atonement and the Mormon Cross Taboo,” and also proposes and deploys a system of classification that should be of general utility for categorizing the importance of the garden relative to the cross within the soteriology of any denomination.

“Materializing Faith and Politics: The Unseen Power of the NCCS Pocket Constitution in American Religion” by Nicholas B. Shrum (Dialogue, Vol. 57, Iss. 2)
This article argues that the NCCS pocket Constitution becomes a commanding piece of material religion, an object that does not only reflect a political philosophy or a theological belief but acts on its own and transforms through performance.

“Sacred Groves and Wicked Problems” by Jared Farmer (Dialogue, Vol. 57, Iss. 1)
This is a lightly revised script of a plenary lecture that Farmer gave in 2022 at Utah State University in which he discussed his books, the Sacred Grove, his relationship to Mormonism, and more.

“Correlating Orthodoxy and Style: Institutionally ‘Approved’ Christ-Centered Art in LDS Visual Resources and Meetinghouses, 1990–2021” by Noel A. Carmack (Dialogue, Vol. 56, Iss. 4)
Despite numerous independent organizations offering member artists opportunities to render their Christ-centered imagery with modern approaches and in diverse ways, official artwork vetted by institutional authority continues to be used to uphold an orthodoxy of style and doctrine.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING

Check out Mormon Studies episodes of the UPside podcast!

Listen to our interview celebrating fifty years of the Journal of Mormon History with the journal’s editor, Dr. Christopher Jones, and former editors, Jessie Embry and Dr. Chris Blythe here. Read the transcript on our blog here.

Then, check out our podcast celebrating ten years of Mormon Studies Review with the journal’s former editors, Dr. Quincy D. Newell and Benjamin E. Park here, or read the transcript here. Then, read our blog post introducing the new editors, Cristina Rosetti and Joseph Stuart.

The Dialogue Foundation also hosts several podcasts on their website, also available on Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher. Access all their podcast series here or read more about them below:

“Out Loud” features fiction pieces and personal essays that were previously published in Dialogue performed and edited professionally

“Topics” is hosted by Dialogue editor Taylor Petrey and discusses how the journal has tackled tough church topics

“Gospel Study” is a bi-monthly livestream and podcast that features guest speakers, music, and group discussions

“Book Report” is hosted by Dialogue book review editor Andrew Hall, who talks with authors and reviewers of recent books featured in the journal

“Heritage” is a trip through Dialogue’s history with editor Taylor Petrey and art editor Andi Pitcher Davis

FIND OUT MORE

To recommend one or more of these titles to your library, fill out our online Library Request Form.

Interested in advertising in any of these journals? Online and print ad information can be found in our catalog. Contact journalsmarketing@illinois.edu for all ad inquiries.