Scholars & Saints

Ryan Ward is a professor of experimental psychology. But during his time serving as a Latter-day Saint bishop several years ago in New York, the needs and concerns of his congregation motivated him to study theology in his spare time. We're chatting today about his recent book, And There Was No Poor Among Them: Liberation, Salvation, and the Meaning of Restoration (Kofford, 2023). We talk abo...

Cory Crawford and Taylor Petrey join me to discuss The Bible and the Latter-day Saint Tradition (Utah, 2023) and the opportunities and challenges of Latter-day Saint biblical studies in the 21st century. 

Today on Scholars & Saints , I'm joined by Mason Kamana Allred to talk about his new book Seeing Things: Technologies of Vision and the Making of Mormonism (UNC 2023). We discuss German media theory, feminist new materialism, cybernetics, microphotography, and spiritual feedback loops. 

Christine Elyse Blythe, Christopher James Blythe, and Jay Burton join me to discuss the scriptures of the Latter Day Saint "diaspora." There are more than 400 branches of the Restoration movement begun by Joseph Smith, Jr., and the prophetic production of written scripture is central to many of them. In this episode we discuss the sealed portion(s) of the Book of Mormon, collaborative sc...

Dr. Rosalynde Welch, senior research scholar and associate director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at BYU joins me to talk about the "literary turn" in Book of Mormon studies, postsecular critique, scriptural theology, and her recent book on the Book of Ether. Welch argues that the Book of Ether—a kind of microcosm of the Book of Mormon of which it is a part—p...

In this episode, I chat with Dr. Bruce Worthen about his recent book Mormon Envoy: The Diplomatic Legacy of Dr. John Milton Bernhisel  (U. of Illinois Press). Worthen unfolds the little known contributions of Bernhisel, who as historian Matt Grow aptly quipped, seems to "have his fingerprints all over Mormon history during this period." We chat about the 1857 Utah War, Bernhisel’s rags-t...

In this episode, Professor Adam Miller (Collin College) chats with me about his recent book Original Grace: An Experiment in Restoration Thinking (BYU Maxwell Institute & Deseret Book, 2022). Miller argues that Latter-day Saint scripture's rejection of original sin offers an opportunity to rethink the implications of grace. For Miller, grace—not sin—is what's original. What this mean...

Dr. Jon Bialecki returns to the show to discuss a recent essay, "The Mormon Dead" that explores why Latter-day Saints do not seek or experience the phenomenon of spirit possession as a feature of proxy temple ordinances performed for their deceased ancestors. We talk about the anthropology of spirit possession, the Godbeite movement, Latter-day Saint kinship, and more. 

In this episode I chat with Professor Joseph Spencer, a philosopher and theologian from Brigham Young University. We talk about Spencer's recent reassessment of Nibley's legacy not as a scholar of the ancient world or of Mormon apologetics, but as a theologian. Spencer unfolds a unique take on Nibley undergirded by extensive research in Nibley's personal papers and correspondence in...

Dr. George Handley, Latter-day Saint ecocritic, activist, and professor of interdisciplinary humanities at Brigham Young University joins me to chat about what Latter-day Saint theology says about environmental stewardship. Handley says he hopes he is "planting a tree on the last day of the world."

Dr. James Faulconer, a Latter-day Saint philosopher and theologian now emeritus of Brigham Young University joins me to discuss "performative" or "scriptural" theology and how it helps illuminate Latter-day Saint scripture. In his recent book, Thinking Otherwise: Theological Explorations of Joseph Smith's Revelations, Faulconer argues that Joseph Smith's revelations a...

Courtney Campbell, Hundere Professor in Religion and Culture at Oregon State University joins me in this episode to discuss his recent book Moral Realities: Medicine, Bioethics, & Mormonism (2021, Oxford University Press). We discuss Professor Campbell's three-part normative framework for a Latter-day Saint bioethics which centers on a "restored, re-storied, and prophetic morality.&q...

Professor Nathan Rees (University of West Georgia) joins me to discuss his book Mormon Visual Culture and the American West . We chat about the role that visual art played in creating, mediating, and interpreting the experiences of nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints on the American frontier. Rees reveals that visual culture is more than just art: its about understanding and negotiating what is r...

Kristine Haglund joins me to discuss her recent book, Eugene England: A Mormon Liberal , the inaugural volume in the University of Illinois Press's new Introductions to Mormon Thought Series. We talk about England's influences, methods, epistemology,  and theology from an intellectual historical rather than a biographical point of view.

Dr. Michael Austin joins me to discuss his recent book Vardis Fisher: A Mormon Novelist . Fisher was the first of the "Lost Generation" or "Golden Age" of Mormon novelists in the early twentieth century. While self-identified as an atheist, his work is suffused with the hues and textures of his Mormon upbringing in rural Idaho. Fisher's work challenges easy categorization...

President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, delivered the seventh annual Joseph Smith Lecture on Religious Liberty on November 5, 2021. His lecture was entitled "Going Forward with Religious Freedom & Nondiscrimination."

Dr. Robin Jensen (Joseph Smith Papers) talks with me about the recently published facsimile edition of the Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, part of the Joseph Smith Papers's  Revelations & Translations  series. We talk about early Latter-day Saint record-keeping, the relationship between prophetic authority and scriptural texts, and much more.

Professor Kathryn Lofton, Lex Hixon Professor of Religious Studies and American studies, Professor of History and Divinity, and Dean of Humanities at Yale University, joins me to discuss her Smith-Pettit Lecture delivered at the Mormon History Association Conference in June 2022, entitled "A Brief History of the Mormon Smile." We discuss Erving Goffman, affective performativity, American...

Professor William N. Eskridge of Yale Law School, a renowned expert on the judicial interpretation of statutory law, delivered the eighth annual Joseph Smith Lecture on Religious Liberty at the University of Virginia on September 22, 2022. His lecture, "LGBTQ+ Equality & Religious Liberty: Statutory Principles & The Golden Rule" responded to President Dallin H. Oaks's 2021 J...

Amaechi Okafor, PhD Candidate in History at Concordia University, joins me to discuss his ethnographic fieldwork among Latter-day Saints in Nigeria. We discuss the high social costs of being a Latter-day Saint in Nigeria, cultural tensions between Indigenous African cultures and the US-based church, the positive effects of the church's BYU-Pathway program, and the possibilities for an emergen...

Professor John Durham Peters of Yale University joins me to discuss his 2016 essay in Critical Inquiry, "Recording Beyond the Grave: Joseph Smith's Celestial Bookkeeping"

Professor Terryl Givens of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University joins me to talk about the life of Latter-day Saint theologian Eugene England. 

Professor Nathan Oman of The College of William & Mary Law School joins me and Professor Kathleen Flake to discuss the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' incorporation and the role of church corporations in navigating American legal disestablishment

Professor Brenda Weber of Indiana University-Bloomington joins me and Professor Kathleen Flake to discuss how representations of Latter-day Saints have been used in American media for a variety of purposes. 

Professor Elizabeth Fenton of the University of Vermont joins me and guest co-host Professor Kathleen Flake to discuss the "Hebraic Indian Theory" and The Book of Mormon. Where did the Lost Tribes of Israel go after the Assyrian captivity in the Bible? The center of the Earth? Another planet? The North Pole? You decide.