Because ‘No Bell in Us Tolls’: Imagining A More Explicit Pragmatism in Mormon Thought many observers have noted in passing that Mormonism is a very ‘pragmatic” religion, but as they use the term they usually don’t mean much beyond “practical.” While I agree that this is a fair characterization of various aspects of LDS thought and praxis, there is much more to the philosophical tradition of pragmatism that just a common-sense approach to issues and questions. Pragmatism honors individual temperaments while calling us to adventure and a robust engagement with life. Yet, it also contains strong correctives that are especially useful as we find ourselves occasionally spiraling off into universes of our own making or riding too enthusiastically on our own elegant but narrowly focused hobby-horses. If it were understood better and its criteria for judging truths were more explicitly applied, it could be demonstrated that we-individually and within our tradition-would greatly benefit from this international application of pragmatis.

Dan Wotherspoon, Dave Sandberg