Dispatches from Mormon Zion (Ryan W. Davis) - Review
When I was around seven years old,
my family stopped in Salt Lake City during a trip to Denver to visit relatives.
For some reason, our visit to Temple Square has stuck with me through the
years. By the time I was in high school, my fascination with Mormonism took on
a new form, anti-Mormonism. I read everything I could about what I had come to
believe was a cult (Walter Martin’s Kingdom of the Cults was my
guidebook. Besides the anti-cult books, I read Fawn Brodie's important
biography, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith. My
understanding of Mormonism has evolved. I still find Latter-Day Saint views of
God sitting on the margins of Christian theology (see my review of Grant
Underwood’s intriguing Latter-Day
Saint Theology among Christian Theologies, Eerdmans, 2025), but I no
longer consider them to be a cult. Rather, they are just a different version of
the Christian story. I offer this preface to my review of Ryan Davis' Dispatches
from Mormon Zion to underscore my long-standing interest in the world of Latter-day
Saint theology and practices.
Davis's Dispatches from Mormon
Zion is not a book of theology or apologetics for Mormonism. Rather, it is
an expression of what it means to be LDS and live in Mormon Zion (Utah). More
specifically, Davis is a professor of political science at Brigham Young University
and a resident of Provo, Utah. As people read Davis's dispatches, they may
discover how normal Mormons are. In this book, we encounter a political science
professor who loves to talk about Taylor Swift and is an avid fisherman. Therefore,
there is a lot of talk about both Swift (he is a male Swiftie, I believe) and
fishing (especially fly-fishing). All of this takes place in the context of
living in Provo and teaching at BYU.
The word Zion, which in most
Christian and Jewish parlance means Jerusalem, is what Mormons call Utah. It
has both a physical meaning, a place where the saints dwell, and, more
specifically, the Salt Lake Basin. This is where Mormons migrated under the
leadership of Brigham Young, seeking a home where they could practice their
faith after the murder of Joseph Smith and being run out of Nauvoo, Illinois.
But it also has a spiritual sense, as Davis points out: "Latter-Day
Saints' scriptures define Zion as the 'pure in heart.' Zion is a people who are
'of one heart and one mind, and [dwell] in righteousness'" (p. xii). In Davis’s
dispatches, we find both meanings present. Davis’s goal here is to demonstrate
the contemporary resonance of the concept of Zion. So, in these dispatches,
Davis addresses several questions, including "What is Mormon Zion like? What
kind of experiences does it make possible? If you encounter another person in
the way, just get what's happening to them, and they somehow intuit what you're
feeling as well. What happens next?" (p. xv). I think it’s important to
note that Davis, like Grant Underwood, chose to publish his Dispatches from Mormon Zion with a mainstream Christian publisher rather than an LDS publisher.
This suggests that he wants to use these dispatches to reach out not only to
the LDS world, but to the wider Christian world. I believe he has done his job
well, as this is a thoroughly enjoyable read. You might even forget at times
that the dispatches come from Mormon Zion.
Davis begins his book with a
chapter titled "Millennial Beginnings." In this chapter, he offers a
set of dispatches that speak about living in Utah County, the county where one finds
the city of Provo and Brigham Young University. In a series of brief pieces, he
introduces us to dimensions of what it’s like to live in Provo. We encounter a
story about a sofa that travels down a Provo street and a Pioneer Day Pie-Bake
contest, among other stories. He mixes into these stories an
"interlude," in which he reflects on how the idea of Zion emerged in
Joseph Smith's mind. The message is that "Zion is about replacing discord
with unity." With that in mind, he writes of the message of Zion that
"We might not share the same beliefs, but we can imagine a time when we
will" (p. 8). He titles Chapter 2 "I Don't Fish on Saturdays." This
is the first of several chapters/dispatches where Davis speaks of his interest
in fishing. One of the stories we find here involves a young girl whom Davis
encounters one Saturday morning along the Provo River, who wishes to learn how
to fish. It's a fun chapter, so I'll leave it at that. However, I think do
think he means to offer this story as a way to reveal something about living in
Zion.
Chapter 3 is titled "Visions
of Freedom." Here, he delves more fully into Mormon life and viewpoints.
He makes use of a poem by Charles W. Penrose, a Mormon who never made it to
Utah, but imagined the nature of Zion. This chapter includes both dispatches
and interludes that reveal something about imagining Zion and migrating there
as well. There is a requisite mention of Taylor Swift in this chapter, along
with another reflection on fishing. This time, we learn about fishing for Walleye
at the mouth of the Provo River as it flows into Utah Lake. Taylor Swift gets
her first full discussion in Chapter 4, which is titled "Taylor Swift and
the Metaphysics of the Self." In this chapter, he reflects on Swift's song
"You Are in Love," using her song as an entry point into a discussion
of the meaning of the self and its construction. He suggests here that the self
is worthy of love. Not being a Taylor Swift fan, I learned a bit more about her
than I had from clips of her concerts and her presence at Chiefs' games. For
his part, Davis is a big fan, and he finds meaning in her songs. I must admit
that I find it interesting that a male Mormon political science professor would
be into her music. That said, we have this from Davis: "If Taylor Swift
stands for anything, it's emotional honesty," which leads to a confession
about what it means to love another (p. 57).
Further dispatches involve a
reflection on Davis's mother, a wild raccoon, and what it means to be without
guile (Chapter 5). I will let the reader figure out what that is all about.
Chapter 6 is titled "The Dance," and it deals with a particular
method of fly fishing. That chapter may be especially interesting to those who
are into fly fishing. But again, this chapter reminds us that Mormons may have
distinctive beliefs, but in their daily lives, they’re just like everybody
else. We then move to chapter 7, which is titled "The Thing They Don't
Tell You." Here we encounter a set of conversations about college exams.
Remember that this is a book filled with dispatches that come from Mormon Zion,
but not everything is about Mormonism, at least not explicitly. Therefore, you
have to be awake to the messaging.
The next chapter is titled
"Divine Riddles in the Laser-Tag Line" (Chapter 8). In this chapter,
Davis offers a reflection about a Sunday morning talk given at a Mormon service
(it is worth noting here that the LDS church does not have trained clergy, so
the messages are delivered by members of the congregation). If you wanted to
know what happens at a service, at least in terms of messaging, Davis clues us
in. Here, Davis tells about a Sunday morning talk focused on hearing a message from
God, while standing in a laser-tag line, which leads to a marriage. Davis uses
the story to ponder the question of how God might speak to us, which leads to a
reflection about hearing a word from Jesus' parables. I found it interesting
that in interpreting Jesus' parables, Davis turns to John Dominic Crossan. What
he takes from the Sunday morning talk and the reflection on words from Isaiah
and Jesus is that "God's revelation leaves us free to act" (p. 136).
Many Mormon families engage in what
is known as “Family Home Evening,” which involves a religious lesson, prayer, a
game (perhaps), and hopefully a snack. In "Family Home Evening, or How I
Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Quietist Theological Relativism"
(chapter 8), he draws on a message from a Mormon friend who shared with his
family, which was titled "The End of the Word, Plan B." The question
here has to do with justice and the end of the world, which he thinks we can't
count on. So, there is Plan B. In this chapter, Davis explores Joseph Smith's
restorationism and the meaning of Smith's vision that sought to answer his confusion
as to which religion was the correct one. Davis ends up with a bit of
relativism. I am not sure how this might be perceived in LDS circles, but it
offers a more open view of what Smith discerned on such matters. Chapter 10,
titled "The Legend of Quint McCallister,” reflects on the meaning of another
Sunday talk given by his father, which involves planting hay for winter grazing
and relationships that help with that decision. I'll leave it at that, except
it says something about trust.
In writing his conclusion to Dispatches
from Mormon Zion, Davis suggests that Mormon Zion is "a kind of base
camp for God's kingdom" (p. 174). With that said, he suggests that he didn’t
write this book intending to persuade anyone about anything. However, Davis
does want to leave us with a question to consider. The question he wants us to
consider is "What three best moments do you most vividly remember from the
Last year?" Having asked the question and offered his three best moments, he
offers this takeaway: "If, somehow or other, the universe deals you a
chance to respond to someone in a way that affirms, understands, or even shares
in the way they value themselves, then you are in a position to give them a
very special gift." He suggests that reading to the end is a great gift to
him (p. 175). In our day, we might want to pay attention to what the universe
might be gifting us!
In reading Ryan Davis’s Dispatches from Mormon Zion," a person will learn about life in Mormon Zion. This
includes a bit of LDS theology, which might be new to some readers. However, as
I read this well-written set of dispatches, what I discovered is that Davis has
offered us a rather fun read that occasionally slips in his thoughts about his
LDS faith and the practices that emerge from it.
Copies of Ryan Davis's Dispatches from Mormon Zion may be purchased at your favorite retailer, including my Amazon affiliate bookstore and my Bookshop.org affiliate.
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