Episodes

Maxwell Institute Conversations are special episodes of the Maxwell Institute Podcast, hosted by Terryl Givens and created in collaboration with Faith Matters Foundation. In this episode Terryl Givens sits down with Margaret Blair Young to talk about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Congo, faith transitions, spiritual healing, writing, and more. About the Guest Margaret Blair Young is an American author, filmmaker, and writing instructor who taught for 30 years at Brigham You...

The religious marketplace in Denmark was thrown wide open in 1849 when the country ratified its first democratic constitution. After nearly a thousand years of state control, the people were guaranteed religious freedom. No more would Danes automatically be Lutheran. Missionary-minded Christians from around the world flocked to Denmark. Thousands upon thousands of Danes joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In this episode, Dr. Julie K. Allen joins us to talk about these conve...

This year marks forty years since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began, once again, to ordain black members of African descent to its priesthood. Forty years since the church began administering it sacred temple ordinances to black women and men. Over the past forty years the body of scholarship on race and the Church has expanded, with the biggest advances happening over the past ten years. Max Perry Mueller’s book is one of the latest offerings. It’s called Race and the Makin...

Jane and Emma is a new film based on the historical relationship of Jane Manning—one of the few black converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during its infancy—and Emma Smith, who presided over the Church’s women’s organization, the Relief Society, and who was married to the prophet Joseph Smith. It’s an emotional film that delves into some of the most sensitive issues in Latter-day Saint history, including racial tension, polygamy, and the death of Joseph Smith. In this sp...

Maxwell Institute Conversations are special videocast episodes of the Maxwell Institute Podcast, hosted by Terryl Givens and created in collaboration with Faith Matters Foundation. In this episode Terryl Givens sits down with Brian Kershisnik to talk about art, creativity, and worship. About the Guest Brian Kershisnik is an American painter. He studied art at the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, and the University of Texas at Austin. He started a studio in Kanosh, Utah, in 1991 an...

Maxwell Institute Conversations are special videocast episodes of the Maxwell Institute Podcast, hosted by Terryl Givens and created in collaboration with Faith Matters Foundation. In this episode Terryl Givens sits down with Thomas F. Rogers to talk about the risks of discipleship, and worshiping God with all one’s heart, might, mind, and strength. About the Guest Thomas F. Rogers is a noted playwright, essayist, and scholar who taught Russian at Brigham Young University from 1969 to 2000. He...

What comes to mind when you hear the term “American Christians”? Most people today think of the so-called Religious Right, a loosely knit group of conservative Christians who oppose legal abortion, favor gun rights, and hail Ronald Reagan as one like unto Moses. Matthew Bowman’s latest book is a wake-up call, reminding us that there’s no such thing as American Christianity. There are Christianities, ranging from conservative to liberal, all over the political spectrum. In this episode we’ll com...

Maxwell Institute Conversations are special videocast episodes of the Maxwell Institute Podcast, hosted by Terryl Givens and created in collaboration with Faith Matters Foundation. In this episode Terryl Givens sits down with Kate Holbrook to talk about extraordinary women in Latter-day Saint history. About the Guest Kate Holbrook is Managing Historian of Women’s History at the LDS Church History Department and co-editor of At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women and t...

On the surface, forgiveness seems like such a simple concept but it can be one of the most difficult things we ever do. Maybe someone in your life has hurt you and you’ve never been able to forgive them. Maybe you’ve hurt someone else and they haven’t forgiven you. Maybe it’s time to see if that can change. Mpho Tutu van Furth joins us to talk about a book she co-wrote with her father Desmond Tutu. It’s called The Book of Forgiving. It’s an invitation and a step-by-step guide to walk what the T...

Maxwell Institute Conversations are special videocast episodes of the Maxwell Institute Podcast, hosted by Terryl Givens and created in collaboration with Faith Matters Foundation. In this episode Terryl Givens sits down with Steven L. Peck, an award-winning author and scientist; one of the most bright and interesting Latter-day Saints you’ll ever meet. For Peck, as for Givens, Mormons need not fear scientific research because it can be a wonderful avenue for getting more acquainted with God. ...

How can scholars of religion explain religious faith without explaining it away? Over the centuries many scholars have come to discuss religion as a purely human phenomenon, leaving no room for “special beings” like God, Jesus Christ, angels, or departed loved ones. Robert Orsi confronts such scholarship in his new book History and Presence, inviting scholars to take the experiences of religious believers more seriously. But it’s a risky proposal. “Scholarship entails risk,” Orsi explains, “for...

Maxwell Institute Conversations are special episodes of the Maxwell Institute Podcast, hosted by Terryl Givens and created in collaboration with Faith Matters Foundation. You can also watch this episode on YouTube. In the beginning, God said “let there be light,” and there was light. God created this extraordinary world, the scriptures tell us, through the power of his word. It makes all the more sense, then, that a professor of comparative arts and letters like George Handley would spend so mu...

Americans in the early nineteenth century loved the writing of John Milton. Milton’s embrace of liberal individualism, meritocracy, and his championing of the right to free speech made him an easy sell to anti-British Americans. His epic poem Paradise Lost was a bestseller. Something like twenty editions of Paradise Lost were produced in America during the first half of the nineteenth century, which is right when Mormonism came on the scene. Milton also held some controversial views on the natu...

Latter-day Saint historians have long demonstrated that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not established all at once, but that it has unfolded—line upon line, precept upon precept, to borrow a biblical phrase. Ideas about priesthood in Mormonism, for example, have developed in fascinating ways. In a new book from Oxford University Press, called The Power of Godliness: Mormon Liturgy and Ritual, Jonathan Stapley writes about LDS priesthood and ritual—everything from baby blessi...

The Reverend Billy Graham rose to international prominence in the 1940s preaching an evangelical Christian gospel. Hailing from North Carolina, the charismatic preacher filled stadiums, counseled American presidents, and encouraged millions of people around the world to seek personal transformation by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Historian Grant Wacker joins us to talk about Graham in this episode. Wacker visited Brigham Young University last year as part of the Maxwell Institute’...

Adam Miller wrote Letters to a Young Mormon for thoughtful people yearning for a more thoughtful faith. It’s a little book, but it packs a powerful punch. In this episode, Miller is talks about the new second expanded edition, which the Maxwell Institute recently published in partnership with Deseret Book. We also talk about the perils of Mormon quasi-celebrity, bad book reviews, apologetics, his future projects, and other things. Stick around after the interview with Adam; we’ve got a special ...

The Book of Mormon warns against mistaking intelligence for wisdom, but adds a crucial caveat: “to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God” (2 Nephi 9:29). Where LDS founding prophet Joseph Smith declared that a person is saved no faster than they get knowledge, historian Richard Bushman adds a corollary: A person gains knowledge no faster than they are saved. Bushman believes historical inquiry has made him a better Mormon, but he also believes being a Mormon has made him a ...

Latter-day Saint scholar Terryl L. Givens is back with us again. Dr. Givens spent the summer here at the Institute as a Neal A. Maxwell fellow. It was a real treat to have Terryl here in the building, and he sat down with MIPodcast host Blair Hodges to talk about the second and final book in his “Foundations of Mormon Thought” series from Oxford University Press. The book is called Feeding the Flock, focusing on Church and Praxis. The first volume covered LDS theology, while this volume zeroes i...

If you’re familiar with African American religious history, you know that black women outnumber black men in the church. There are a lot of theories about why, too. Author Zora Neale Hurston, for example, said that black women were “the mules of the world,” and that the church gave them a place to lay their burdens down. But what if there’s something more to it than that? What if women go to church for empowerment? To wield power in sometimes subversive but spiritual ways? Subversive, because in...

When the Qur’an was revealed to the prophet Muhammad, it arrived in the language of his place and time—Arabic. To this day, for virtually all Muslims whether Arab or not, the Qur’an only truly exists in Arabic. You can read an English translation, there are many to choose from, but the Qur’an is said to defy translation. In this episode, Bruce B. Lawrence of Duke University joins us to talk about his latest book, The Koran in English: A Biography. It’s part of Princeton University Press’s Lives...

This special episode is a tribute and homage to LORE, by Aaron Mahnke. If you haven’t already, you should check it out. In 1888 a Mormon woman in the Southern States mission of the LDS Church requested a visit from the missionaries. She said she was possessed by the devil and asked the elders to help her by the laying on of hands. They were happy to comply and the evil spirit was summarily dismissed. Then things took a turn for the worse. This, and other stories of Mormon exorcism are featured...

Who owns religion? Who gets to say what is right or wrong, fact or fiction about any religious tradition? Religious believers and scholars of religion don’t always see eye to eye on this question. In this episode, Dr. Ravi Gupta joins us to talk about where the academic study of religion meets the practice of religion. Gupta is a practicing Hindu, and a scholar of Hinduism. He was here at BYU’s Maxwell Institute on October 3rd delivering a lecture called “Who Owns Religion: A Hindu Perspective ...

An estimated twelve million Africans were forced into slavery from the seventeenth century until Emancipation. Torn from their land, separated from family and kin, their bodies were stolen and their very identities were at risk of annihilation. So Africans became African Americans. Years before Reconstruction, they began reconstructing their own past. Many of them combined patriotism, racial lineage, and Christian scripture to tell their stories, to remember who they were. To save themselves. L...

Martin Luther believed the Bible proved that the Catholic Church had gone astray. His efforts to bring reform to the church wound up leading to his excommunication and the Reformation was off and running. In the previous two episodes we heard from Craig Harline and Brad Gregory, talking about Martin Luther’s life and the Reformation more broadly. In this episode, Jennifer Powell McNutt talks about the Bible during the Reformation. If Protestants believed the Bible was the supreme source of doct...