Maxwell Institute Podcast

Joseph Smith, the founding prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died at the hands of an angry mob in June of 1844. Shortly before his death he is reported to have made this bold declaration: “I should be like a fish out of water, if I were out of persecutions…the Lord has constituted me so curiously that I glory in persecution.” Dr. Adam J. Powell of Durham University has written a book on opposition faced by Joseph Smith and early Latter-day Saints. He argues that, like early Christians of the second century, the opposition faced by nineteenth-century Mormons played a major role in shaping their theology. The idea that humans can become gods appeared in a setting of extreme opposition both for early Mormons like Joseph Smith, and early Christian leaders like Iranaeus. In this episode, Powell joins us to talk about his book, Irenaeus, Joseph Smith, and God-Making Heresy. About the Guest Adam J. Powell is a Junior Research Fellow in the Department of Theology & Religion at Durham University (UK). Prior to Durham, Dr. Powell was Assistant Professor and Director of the MA in Religious Studies at Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina. He has published on topics ranging from patristic theology to the history of sociology and from Mormonism to identity theory. He is the author of Irenaeus, Joseph Smith, and God-Making Heresy. He recently delivered the MI Guest Lecture, “Crisis Converted: Opposition, Salvation, and Elasticity in Early Mormonism.”The post Heresy, opposition, and becoming gods, with Adam J. Powell [MIPodcast #64] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

In the late nineteenth century, a newspaper written and published by women and for women sprung up in what most Americans thought was the unlikeliest of locations: Utah, the home of the Mormons. Along the top of the newspaper the masthead proudly declared its concern: “The Rights of the Women of Zion, and the Rights of the Women of All Nations.” It was called the Women’s Exponent. This declaration—and the paper’s articles on suffrage and women’s rights—puzzled onlookers who thought about the religion mostly as a strange polygamous sect. “How could women simultaneously support a national campaign for political and economic rights while defending a marital practice that to most people seemed relentlessly patriarchal?” That’s the question addressed by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in her latest book, A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870 (see p. xiii). But Ulrich’s book is about more than polygamy and women’s rights. It’s a bold new social and cultural history of early Mormonism more broadly, as seen in the earliest and most personal writings of many overlooked figures of Mormon history. Pulitzer and Bancroft-prize winner Laurel Thatcher Ulrich joined host Blair Hodges to talk about A House Full of Females at Provo, Utah in March when she offered a lecture sponsored by the BYU Women’s Studies program, department of history, and Maxwell Institute. A video of that lecture will be available in the coming weeks. About the Guest Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, of Sugar City, Idaho, is a professor of history at Harvard University. She has served as president of the American Historical Association and the Mormon History Association. Her book A Midwife’s Tale received the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize. Her latest book is A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870. The post Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and “A House Full of Females” [MIPodcast #62] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

There’s a famous passage from First Corinthians: “Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted into them to speak. But they are commanded to be under obedience, as also say the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husband at home. For it is a shame for women to speak in the church” (1 Corinthians 14:34–35). Many scholars believe this passage made its way into the Bible sometime after the death of Apostle Paul. Few Christian churches today abide strictly by that admonition, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A new book from the Church Historian’s Press highlights LDS women speaking from the church’s founding in 1830 to the present day. The book is called At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women. Jennifer Reeder and Kate Holbrook, who edited the book, join us to talk about it at the Church History Library of the LDS Church in Salt Lake City. About the Guests Jennifer Reeder (left) is the nineteenth century woman’s history specialist at the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Kate Holbrook (right) is the department’s managing historian for women’s history. Together they edited At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women. They are also members of Mormon Women’s History Initiative.The post Women at the Latter-day Saint pulpit, with Jennifer Reeder and Kate Holbrook [MIPodcast #61] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

Donald S. Lopez, Jr., a distinguished professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies and author, discusses the long journey and contested history of the Lotus Sutra. He traces its movement across Asia, its claim that anyone can become a Buddha, rhetorical strategies for legitimacy, its impact in China and Japan, and its varied political uses. Short, lively, and full of historical turns.

Are you familiar with the New Atheists? The late Christopher Hitchens wrote biting books about religion as “poison,” Richard Dawkins champions a sort of scientism as a replacement for faith, and people like Bill Maher spend time each evening poking fun at the pious. Despite their unofficial “New Atheist” title, they’re perhaps not actually all that new. Award-winning historian Leigh Eric Schmidt sees them as ancestors of village atheists of days gone by. Atheists in American history have often been at the forefront of debates about the necessity of religion for healthy social life. They’ve fought legal battles over free speech and minority rights. In this episode, you’ll hear Schmidt tell the stories of four controversial folks who called themselves freethinkers—stories of integrity and courage, humor and hypocrisy. We’re talking about Leigh Eric Schmidt’s new book Village Atheists: How America’s Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation. About the Guest Leigh Eric Schmidt is the Edward C. Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. He is author of the highly acclaimed book Hearing Things: Religion, Illusion, and the American Enlightenment, among other titles. His latest is called Village Atheists: How America’s Unbelievers Made Their Way In a Godly Nation (Princeton University Press). The post Village atheists, with Leigh Eric Schmidt [MIPodcast #59] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

People are usually more comfortable talking about their strengths rather than their weaknesses. It’s human nature. The same can be said about religious studies. When scholars talk about it, you can expect them to emphasize the positive. But like many academic fields, religious studies also faces challenges. Some come from the outside—say, when schools and governments and religious traditions want to know why religious studies ought to be pursued at all. Other challenges come from within, when different scholars disagree with each other about what the field should even be. In this episode, a former president of the American Academy of Religion joins us to talk about challenges of religious studies. Professor Thomas Tweed of the University of Notre Dame has spent a lot of time thinking about external and internal challenges to religious studies. His proposed solution to these challenges may sound surprising. He says religious studies scholars should think and talk more about values. You can read Tweed’s AAR presidential address here, or listen to it here.  About Thomas Tweed Thomas Tweed is the Welch Professor of American Studies and a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame. He served as president of the American Academy of Religion in 2015. The post Some challenges of religious studies, with Thomas Tweed [MIPodcast #58] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

One Hundred Birds Taught Me to Fly is the latest book in the Maxwell Institute’s Living Faith series. In this episode, author Ashley Mae Hoiland joins Blair Hodges, co-editor of the series, to talk about the revelatory nature of writing. The book is for restless souls who desire to know God more deeply. Hoiland bids the reader to follow her down the hallowed and well-trodden path between the heart and mind, where glimpses of godliness are discovered in rainstorms, bus rides, temples, and mountains. As a Latter-day Saint, she explores the complexities of faith in everyday life where laughter and creativity matter as much as faith, hope, and charity. About the Guest Ashley Mae Hoiland received a bachelor of fine arts degree in studio arts and a master of fine arts degree in poetry from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. She teaches art in low-income elementary schools in California and has written and illustrated several children’s books. She is founder of We Brave Women—an initiative to educate youth about important historic and contemporary women. Her website is ashmae.com.The post One Hundred Birds Taught Me to Fly, with Ashley Mae Hoiland [MIPodcast #57] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

The deep red state of Utah is surprising pundits as the 2016 presidential election approaches. For the first time in over fifty years, the state is poised to vote for someone other than the Republican nominee. Mormons within the Republican party have been singled out as a significant reason Utah is looking elsewhere. It’s useful to ask, how did things get to this point? Throughout its existence, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have seen themselves as a “peculiar people.” At the same time, they’ve worked hard to fit in with their broader American culture. These goals require a lot of balancing. Political scientists J. Quin Monson and David E. Campbell write that being people set apart while also becoming socially accepted is like a “promised land” that Mormons have been seeking from the 1800s to the present. They join us in this episode to talk about their book, Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics.  Look for Molly Worthen’s book review of Seeking the Promised Land and other books on Mormons and politics in volume 4 of the Mormon Studies Review, out this November. About the Guests David E. Campbell (pictured left) is a professor of political science at the university of Notre Dame and co-author of the award-winning book American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. J. Quin Monson (right) is associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University whose research has appeared in places like the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and Political Research Quarterly. Together with John C. Green they wrote Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics.The post Mormons and American politics, with David E. Campbell and J. Quin Monson [MIPodcast #56] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

As the twentieth century dawned, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints remained at odds with the United States, a country that had provided fertile soil for the growth of their faith, but also a country they felt alienated from. Some of the things Mormons did to keep themselves separate from the outside world ended up helping them reconcile with it. In their efforts to build a self-sustaining Great Basin Kingdom, they sent missionaries back to the eastern United States not to preach their restored gospel per se, but to learn at universities, to advance in fields like law and medicine. In his new book, Thomas W. Simpson argues that American universities played a key role in making Latter-day Saints feel at home in America again. In this episode of the MIPodcast, Simpson joins us to talk about his new book, American Universities and the Birth of Modern Mormonism. It’s a story about the tensions that come along with being a people set apart, and a people trying to fit in. Show note: See Elder M. Russell Ballard’s recent address to LDS Church educators here.  About Thomas W. Simpson Thomas W. Simpson is a specialist in modern U.S. religious history. He received a PhD from the University of Virginia and a Master of Theological Studies from Emory University. He’s an instructor in religion and philosophy at Phillips Exeter Academy. His is the author of American Universities and the Birth of Modern Mormonism, 1867–1940.The post American Universities and the Birth of Modern Mormonism, with Thomas W. Simpson [MIPodcast #55] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

Perhaps you’ve experienced moments of doubt about your religious faith. Or maybe you’re one of the people who find doubt to be a more frequent companion in your spiritual life. Either way, doubt can be unsettling and uncomfortable. Biblical scholar Peter Enns suggests that part of the problem is that many Christians have come to prize certainty as a hallmark of true faith in God. His new book is called The Sin of Certainty. Drawing on history, scripture, and personal experiences, Enns argues that believers can handle the most difficult questions if they stop needing to be right all the time and instead focus more on trusting God. “Doubt,” he writes, “is only the enemy of faith when we equate faith with certainty.” About Peter Enns Peter Enns is the Abram S. Clemens Professor of Biblical Studies at Eastern University, St. Davids, Pennsylvania. His books include Inspiration and Incarnation, The Bible Tells Me So, and The Evolution of Adam. His most recent book is called The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires Our Trust More Than Our “Correct” Beliefs.The post The Sin of Certainty, with Peter Enns [MIPodcast #54] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.