Kristine Stringham

How can communal spaces, which are circumscribed by hierarchical religious authority provide opportunity for genuine I-Thou dialogical encounters which are valued by the tradition? My research will consider this question in the context of the phenomenon of the ‘talk’ as practised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I will utilize the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer, particularly his concept of play [Spiel], and Martin Buber’s writings on community, to analyze the nature and structure of Latter-day Saint ‘talks’ – an understudied phenomenon of lay preaching - to demonstrate if and how it facilitates the potential for I-Thou relational events, or personal revelation, as described by the church. I will argue that the dynamic dialectic at play in these talks serves as the site of negotiation for both institutional authority as well as for epistemic novelty, growth, and community construction.