Dialogue was originally the creation of a group of young Mormon scholars at Stanford University led by Eugene England, and G. Wesley Johnson.

The first issue appeared in the spring of 1966, and during its first few years the editorial board and staff came to include many notables in the subsequent history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, such as Richard Bushman, Chase Peterson, Stanford Cazier, Dallin H. Oaks, Cherry Silver, Karen Rosenbaum, and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.

Dialogue is known for publishing groundbreaking articles from respected Mormon scholars and writers such as Armand Mauss, Hugh Nibley, Lester Bush, and D. Michael Quinn.

The "e-Papers" section intended to "supplement the printed journal by housing digital documents that qualify as papers ... complete pieces, duly refereed and edited and hitherto unpublished."

Early e-Papers included D. Michael Quinn's "Joseph Smith's Experience of a Methodist "Camp-Meeting" in 1820," and articles by other authors comprising a "Critique and Defense of Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon."

Dialogue has promoted Mormon arts and letters by publishing hundreds of poems, short stories, personal essays, and articles of criticism.

... Nearly 40 years of back issues-the entire run of this seminal periodical for Mormon studies-have now been completely digitized and made accessible to the public free of charge ...