Latter-day Dissent

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Latter-day Dissent: At the Crossroads of Intellectual Inquiry and Ecclesiastical Authority is a 2011 edited volume by Philip Lindholm. Published by Greg Kofford Books, this 236-page paperback collects the stories of prominent LDS intellectuals who faced disciplinary action by the Church. It features contributions from members of the so-called September Six, including Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, Paul Toscano, Maxine Hanks, Lavina Fielding Anderson, and D. Michael Quinn, as well as Janice Merrill Allred, Margaret Merrill Toscano, Thomas W. Murphy, and Donald Jessee. The book combines Lindholm’s analysis with a foreword by Diarmaid MacCulloch and the interviews themselves to explore intellectual freedom and church discipline in Mormonism. It revisits the September 2010 discipline of six intellectuals for public dissent and places it in the context of similar actions in 1995, 2000, and 2003. Through the personal faith journeys of those disciplined, the volume asks what it means to be a dissenter within the LDS Church. Scholars Jan Shipps and Diarmaid MacCulloch praise the work for its courage and insight, and reviewers note the powerful, personal nature of the interviews.