Maxwell Institute Podcast

Everything changed for Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints in a few short months in 1838. 5000 Saints gathered in the burgeoning city of Far West, Missouri to celebrate the 4th of July. Confident and secure in their main settlement, Sidney Rigdon declared that if a mob came again, it would be a “war of extermination.” His words proved prophetic–the Missourians would remember that language. Governor Lilburn Boggs signed Executive Order number 44 the 27th of October declaring that “the Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state.” After the Hawn’s Mill Massacre and the siege at Far West, 66 Latter-day Saint men were arrested. Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, and Sidney Rigdon, as well as Caleb Baldwin, Lyman Wight and Alexander McRae were eventually jailed in the Clay County Jail at Liberty, Missouri for “crimes of high treason”–an offense that did not provide the possibility of bail. BH Roberts would later call the jail a “prison temple,” yet it was a squalid, dirty, and dark place. They spent four months there as the Saints were scattered across Missouri hoping to find safety in the city of Quincy, Illinois. Joseph wrote his first general missive to the saints in the middle of December. After a long winter in the jail with “screeking iron gates,” Joseph wrote again to the Saints as the spring began to thaw, not knowing they would soon escape. The Doctrine and Covenants sections we know today as sections 121, 122, and 123 are all portions of a larger letter written to the Saints on March 22nd. Not being able to stand up straight in the jail, in the letter Joseph also described how, “Our souls have been bowed down and we have suffered much distress … and truly we have had to wade through an ocean of trouble.”  Joseph directed the letter “to the church of Latterday saints at Quincy Illinois and scattered abroad and to Bishop Edward Partridge in particular,” however he sent the missive to his wife Emma because he wanted her “to have the first reading of it.” The 17-page letter was quickly circulated amongst the Saints. As members would often do with revelations, some created their own handwritten copies. Mary Fielding Smith described the letter as “food to the hungry.”  The post Abide #16: Doctrine and Covenants 121-123 appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

Eugene England was many things: a scholar, a theologian, an essayist, a husband, father, and teacher. But, above all, he defined himself as a disciple of Jesus Christ and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Today, we speak with Terryl Givens, a Senior Research Fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute, to discuss his biography of Gene England, entitled Stretching the Heavens: The Life of Eugene England and the Crisis of Modern Mormonism (UNC Press, 2021). We discuss Gene’s approach to discipleship, scholarship, and how he wouldn’t have separated his pursuit of knowledge and bridgebuilding from his very core beliefs in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Could you do us a favor and review, rate, and subscribe to the Maxwell Institute Podcast wherever you find podcasts? Thank you! Now, without any further do, let’s start our conversation with Terryl Givens. The post Maxwell Institute Podcast #130: Stretching the Heavens with Eugene England appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

Sections 116-120 reveal a Church and prophet trying desperately to make the best of a bad situation. By the date of the last revelation a third of the Quorum of the Twelve would apostatize. The Lord directed that the Church move its headquarters from Ohio to Missouri. The Latter-day Saints changed their main county of residence.  In the midst of this, God gave them answers, but not ones that did not immediately seem to pay off in the short term. However, the Lord’s revelations pointed to things working out in the long run. Identifying the place where Jesus would return before the Second Coming. Sending out missionaries to bring in new members. The importance of councils and counseling with them to allow for a wide variety of perspectives and voices to make a decision. Or, thinking even bigger picture, sometimes we just have to remember that the Lord’s timeline is a LOT longer than ours.  The post Abide #15: Doctrine and Covenants 116-120 appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

Sections 116-120 reveal a Church and prophet trying desperately to make the best of a bad situation. By the date of the last revelation a third of the Quorum of the Twelve would apostatize. The Lord directed that the Church move its headquarters from Ohio to Missouri. The Latter-day Saints changed their main county of […]

In July of 1836 JS Hyrum Smith OC SR travelled to Salem, MA. They arrived on 5 August and rented a house on Union Street for the next 3 weeks. The revelation in section 111 might have been received there, BUT There is no contemporary evidence that tells us why they were there. THe contemporary evidence we do have, included in the JOseph Smith Papers, is a letter from Oliver to his brother Warren and a letter from Joseph to Emma, they talk of preaching and visiting historic places, of their financial worries for the church, but little else. And this was a long trip for little else. Finishing the Kirtland temple (known as the House of the Lord) and buying up land in Ohio left the church in a precarious financial situation.  There are two late accounts of individuals who were not on the trip that suggested they went to Salem to find hidden money.  The post Abide #14: Doctrine and Covenants 111-115 appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

How do we understand the lives of women who lived in ancient times? Where do historians and scholars go for evidence when there’s relatively little available in written records? In this episode of the Maxwell Institute Podcast, we will talk with Dr. Catherine Gines Taylor, a Nibley Postdoctoral Fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute, and Dr. Mark Ellison, an Associate Professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University, to learn more *about the lives of Christian women in antiquity*how to uncover or unearth the religious lives of women*and discuss how the material record or historical “stuff” reveals religious meaning and practice.You can purchase their book Material Culture and Women’s Religious Experience in Antiquity, co-edited with Carolyn Osiek, wherever books are sold, including from Amazon and the Rowman and Littlefield website. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive show notes for this and all Maxwell Institute Podcast episodes!https://mi.byu.edu/monthly-mi-news/ The post Maxwell Institute Podcast #129 appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

We will be discussing each week’s block of reading from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ “Come, Follow Me” curriculum. We aren’t here to present a lesson, but rather to hit on a few key themes from the scripture block that we believe will help fulfill the Maxwell Institute’s mission to inspire and fortify Latter-day Saints in their testimonies of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and engage the world of religious ideas.” The post Abide #13: Doctrine and Covenants 109-110 appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

In early 1835 the first Quorum of the 12 of the Restored Church were called and that spring were tasked with travelling “through the Eastern States, to the Atlantic Ocean, and hold conferences in the vicinity of the several branches of the Church for the purpose of regulating all things necessary for their welfare.” As they prepared to approach their first mission, they requested revelatory instruction from Joseph. This revelation came in response to that request, though the last part of the revelation had actually been received 4 years earlier.  This revelation demonstrates the continuing process of revealing understanding of priesthood particularly building on some of the ideas introduced in section 84. This expanded administrative offices within the church including deacons, teachers, priests, and elders. As the JSP details, the first individuals were ordained to the high priesthood in June of 1831. It likewise opened the way for multiple bishops and a president of the high priesthood. In late 1831 Newell K. Whitney was appointed Bishop of Kirtland and in early 1832 JS became the president of the high priesthood–on the day the church was organized his position had been that of first elder. The ecclesial structure of the church would continue to expand.  We aren’t here to present a lesson, but rather to hit on a few key themes from the scripture block that we believe will help fulfill the Maxwell Institute’s mission to inspire and fortify Latter-day Saints in their testimonies of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and to engage the world of religious ideas.” The post Abide #12: Doctrine and Covenants 107 appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have taken the Lord’s call to “have a record kept among [them]” since the commandment was given in the first days of the Church. One of the ways that the Church accomplishes this is through the Joseph Smith Papers Project. In this episode, we will hear from Robin Scott Jensen, David Grua, and Jessica Nelson about the work of the Joseph Smith Papers Project, what was going on during Joseph Smith’s life in March-July 1843 (including the reception of what was later canonized as Doctrine and Covenants 132), and much more! The post Maxwell Institute Podcast #128: Joseph Smith Papers, Documents Volume 12 appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

We will be discussing each week’s block of reading from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ “Come, Follow Me” curriculum. We aren’t here to present a lesson, but rather to hit on a few key themes from the scripture block that we believe will help fulfill the Maxwell Institute’s mission to inspire and fortify Latter-day Saints in their testimonies of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and engage the world of religious ideas.” The post Abide #11: Doctrine and Covenants Sections 102-106 appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.