Maxwell Institute Podcast

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 and in 2006 he established another studio in Provo, Utah, where he currently lives. His notable works include a portrait of Leslie Norris, Nativity, and She Will Find What Was Lost. The post MIConversations #5—Brian Kershisnik with Terryl Givens, “Surprising angels” appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

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 also served as director of the BYU Honors Program in the 1970s. From 1993 to 1996, he was president of the LDS Church’s Russia St. Petersburg Mission, the subject of his memoir A Call to Russia: Glimpses of Missionary Life (Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 1999). Subsequently, he and his wife, Merriam, served in the Stockholm Sweden Temple. From 2007 until his release in 2014, Rogers was a traveling LDS patriarch assigned to the LDS Church’s Europe East Area. He is author of Let Your Hearts and Minds Expand: Reflections on Faith, Reason, Charity, and Beauty (Neal A. Maxwell Institute, 2016). Tom and Merriam currently live in Bountiful, Utah, where he spends time painting and visiting their seven children and forty grandchildren. The post MIConversations #4—Thomas F. Rogers with Terryl Givens, “Risk-taking discipleship” appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

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 complicate the simple story and try to find out who gets to decide what counts as Christian in the United States. Matthew Bowman talks about his latest book, Christian: The Politics of a Word in America. About the Guest Matthew Bowman is Associate Professor of History at Henderson State University. He is the author of The Mormon People, and a new book called Christian: The Politics of a Word in America from Harvard University Press. The post Christianity and American politics, with Matthew Bowman [MIPodcast #82] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

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 the award-winning The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. She also co-edited Women and Mormonism: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives and Global Values 101: A Short Course. For her dissertation work on religion and food, she received the first Eccles Fellowship in Mormon Studies at the University of Utah. Her current projects include a history of the LDS young women organization and a monograph on LDS foodways. The post MIConversations #3—Kate Holbrook with Terryl Givens, “Extraordinary Women in Mormon History” appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

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 Tutu’s call the four-fold path of forgiveness. Mpho recently visited Brigham Young University to speak at the Maxwell Institute’s symposium, “Forgiveness & Reconciliation.” The Institute’s own Dr. Deidre Green was the visionary of this truly remarkable gathering. If you missed it, you can watch several of the presentations on the Institute’s YouTube channel. About the Guest Mpho Tutu van Furth served as executive director at The Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation from 2011 to 2016. With her father, Desmond Tutu (former archbishop of South Africa, chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, and Nobel Peace Prize Recipient), she co-authored The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World (HarperCollins, 2015). In 2014, the father and daughter pair started the Tutu Global Forgiveness Challenge, an internet resource that guides people through the steps of forgiveness. The post Forgiveness, with Mpho Tutu van Furth [MIPodcast #81] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

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. About the Guest Steven L. Peck is an evolutionary biologist, poet, and novelist. He is a professor of biology at Brigham Young University. Peck grew up in Moab, Utah and lives in Pleasant Grove, Utah. The post MIConversations #2—Steven Peck and Terryl Givens, “The God Who Marvels” appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

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 the person whose world has been entered by the scholar, but for the scholar, too, whose own uncertainties ought to be on the line in the encounter.” Orsi recently visited the Maxwell Institute to talk about how scholars should take special presences more seriously. We talk about it in this special 80th episode of the Maxwell Institute Podcast. About the Guest Robert Orsi is the Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies at Northwestern University. He has also taught at Fordham University, Indiana University, and Harvard Divinity School. He is former president of the American Academy of Religion. He studies American Catholicism and also writes on theory and method for the study of religion. His latest book History and Presence is an ambitious intervention into the field of religious studies. The post Robert Orsi on History and Presence [MIPodcast #80] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

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 much time thinking about and enjoying creation. In this conversation, LDS author and Humanities professor George Handley speaks with Terryl Givens about connecting with the divine through nature; about being a good steward of the earth; about the tragic death of his brother and the history of a river. He’s consecrated his life and talents to discovering and sharing what is good and beautiful. About the Guest George Handley is the associate dean in Brigham Young University’s College of Humanities. He is the author of several books, including Home Waters: A Year of Recompenses on the Provo River and the brand new novel, American Fork.   The post MIConversations #1—George Handley and Terryl Givens, “Can creation heal us?” appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

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 nature of the godhead, creation, and even polygamy. In this episode, Yale professor of English John Rogers discusses parallels and differences between Joseph Smith’s revelations and John Milton’s theology. Rogers recently visited BYU where he delivered a Maxwell Institute Guest Lecture called “Latter-Day Milton: Early Mormonism and the Political Theologies of Paradise Lost.” You can check that lecture out on the Institute’s YouTube channel. About the Guest A professor of English at Yale University, John Rogers is the author of Matter of Revolution: Science, Poetry, and Politics in the Age of Milton, a book awarded prizes by the Milton Society of America and the Modern Language Association. He is also author of several articles on Renaissance (mainly seventeenth-century) English literature and religious culture. His current projects include a book on the reading of the seventeenth-century poem Paradise Lost in the spiritual hothouse of nineteenth-century America, tentatively titled Latter-day Milton: Paradise Lost and the Creation of America’s God. The post Milton and early Mormonism, with John Rogers [MIPodcast #79] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

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 blessing and baptism, to temple sealings, and everything else in between. About the Guest Jonathan Stapley is an award-winning historian and scientist. An active participant in the field of Mormon studies, he is also the Chief Technology Officer for a bio-renewables company. His new book is called The Power of Godliness: Mormon Liturgy and Ritual (Oxford University Press). The post The development of LDS liturgy and cosmology, with Jonathan Stapley [MIPodcast #78] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.