A Call to Russia: Glimpses of Missionary Life By Thomas F. Rogers BYU Studies, 1999. 208 pages. ISBN: 0-84252-461-4 Suggested retail price: $10.95 (US)
Reviewed by: Andrew R. Hall

I've recently had a wonderful time reading Tom Rogers' new book about his recent three year calling as a Mission President in St. Petersburg (1993-1996). I've been looking forward to writing a glowing review, with lots of quotes from the book. Unfortunately I've lost my copy, I think at the camp where we had youth conference a few weeks ago, and most of the specific stories I wanted to share have become too fuzzy in my mind to give them any justice. But I think I can still give a basic description of the book, and my reaction to it.

First, who is Tom Rogers? Gideon Burton's Mormon literature web site says he "graduated from the University of Utah before going to Yale and later, Stanford, where he earned his Ph.D. in Russian Literature. After teaching at Howard University he returned to his native Utah were he taught at the University of Utah. He currently teaches at BYU. Besides numerous professional articles and books, Rogers has written several short stories and plays on both Mormon and secular themes. He and his wife Miriam have seven children." He has taught in the BYU Slavic department for many years, specializing in literature and film. I have a warm spot in my heart for Dr. Rogers as my wife, Jenifer, and I first met in a class he taught on Tolstoy. It was one of my favorite classes at BYU, because of the way he could take passages from the 19th century texts and find insights in them which applied so beautifully to 20th century Mormon students. His mind is a fascinating mix of intellectual breadth and Christian compassion, and I hung on every word. Dr. Rogers has also been a key figure in Mormon literature. Although not part of the BYU theater department, he is a theater devotee, and has written, acted in, and directed innumerable plays there over the years. Also, he has led his Russian students in Russian language dramatizations of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky plays annually, a practice he continued with his missionaries while Mission President. His most famous play undoubtedly has been "Huebener", which was performed at BYU sometime in the 1970s. It dramatized the true, but then largely unknown, story of the three teenage German members who banded together to print anti-Nazi materials (using the branch mimeograph machine) during Hitler's reign. They were soon caught, and Huebener, the leader of the group, was executed. He was also excommunicated by the Branch President, largely to protect the rest of the congregation. After the war Huebener's membership was reinstated. (Neal Chandler also wrote a play based on the Huebener story, "An Appeal to a Higher Court," told from the point of view of the Branch President, which appeared in Sunstone.) The play was somewhat controversial for what some saw as a critical view of the Church's actions, and a planned production in California was canceled. Margaret Young was in the cast of the original BYU production, and wrote about the experience in a Dialogue essay "Doing Huebener," (I'm not sure which issue). Rogers' plays have been collected in two books, "God's Fools: Plays of Mitigated Conscience" (Signature, 1983) and "Heubener and Other Plays" (Poor Robert's, 1992), both of which contain "Huebener". There is a transcript of a recent interview with Dr. Rogers on Gideon Burton's site, along with the text of a recent play (http://humanities.byu.edu/MLDB/B-rogert.htm).

Rather than a single narrative, or thematic chapters, Dr. Rogers wrote the entire book as a collection of short anecdotes and reflections, roughly in chronological order. The sections are rarely longer than a page, and often there are three to a page. It appears that many of the passages were originally from his own journal. He also uses stories and observations from his wife and daughter, as well as the missionaries themselves. At first I feared that this style wold make the book less consequential than it could be, but I was wrong. In such short spaces he gives amazingly penetrating insights into such things as his own soul, the strengths and failings in Russian society, what makes a good missionary, and the qualities that make Church organizations work. He can be brutally honest about his own failings, especially in the first section covering the beginning of his mission. For someone who saw his own mission presidents as almost god-like figures, it was revealing to see how the early months of a mission are full of many small embarrassments, foolish mistakes, and general lack of comfort for the president as much as it is for the missionary. He doesn't fail to mention the drudgery and disappointments of missionary work, and often mentions the guilt felt by himself and his missionaries because of their inability to help so many people they found drowning in alcoholism. Such discussion makes the joy over the miracles of the work that much more strong. The best part was his discussion of how the basic church units, districts and branches, work. Again, I wish I had it to quote, but his loving descriptions of the wisdom and foolishness of his local leaders are masterfully done, and the lessons he draws from them are completely applicable to a reader in a large, stable ward in the United States.

I really can't say enough about this book. I think it is the best non-fiction book on missionary work I have ever read, and is among the best LDS non-fiction/essay books put out in the last decade. It is on the level of Eugene England's best work in almost every way: intellectual depth, writing skill, and spiritual imagination. Many writers have one or two of those qualities, but few have all three. This book is a piece of gold for those of us who hunger for such literature. That isn't to say it will go over the head of those who prefer simpler reading, it is full of enough interesting stories to appeal to readers on a variety of levels. I especially recommend it as a gift for soon-to-be missionaries.

I have found one passage I can quote to give you an idea of his writing, which is in both the book and his article "On the Importance of Doing Certain Mundane Things" in the December 1998 Sunstone: "I often think these days of that charge by higher critics of the Church that we are all robots, all sheep. Then I look at what rugged individuals our outstanding members have to be in this environment, how self-denying and committed and discerning our leaders have to be-each at every step required to exercise initiative along with constant inspiration-how mature all must be to work together in team fashion (and by contrast how egotistical and self-centered those are who can or will not). And I have to smile at how, in fundamental, existential ways those higher critics are dead wrong. Of course, common agreement on and full acceptance of certain fundamental principles is presupposed by the Church. But what's so wrong with that if they're also true principles, and the Lord's. That's reason enough to defer to those who are the stewards of the structure that allows the entire dynamic we call the Church to work at all. This leads me to a keener sense of why intellectuals rarely join the Church: In their versatile, resilient minds they can, under any circumstances, too readily distract themselves. Others, less verbally or conceptually disposed, are more vividly aware of our common existential deficiency-for which life's cruder, more obviously escapist distractions clearly do not compensate. The life of the mind and the aesthetic sense are, moreover, such powerful and comprehensive surrogates, such subtle spiritual imitations (and often as not religion's legitimate enhancements) that intellectuals can remain too easily distracted, too comfortable, too self-satisfied."

Andrew Hall
Nagareyama, Japan