Monthly Archives: August 2017

Martin Luther and the birth of the Reformation, with Craig Harline [MIPodcast #66]

Craig Harline, Living Reformation MIPodcast, Podcast

What was Martin Luther trying to accomplish when he nailed his ninety-five theses to the Wittenburg church door? Would you believe he didn’t intend to start a new religious movement at all? Down the centuries Martin Luther has been lauded by some, lambasted by others. Was he an amazing hero or an arch heretic, or perhaps something different altogether?

Craig Harline’s latest book peels back the layers of this history, taking us directly into the friar’s musty study to learn the truth about a contested historical figure. The book is called A World Ablaze: The Rise of Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation.

About the Guest

Craig Harline is a professor of history at Brigham Young University and an award-winning author of books including Sunday: A History of the First Day from Babylonia to the Super Bowl and Way Below the Angels, a memoir of his service as a Mormon missionary in Belgium. He specializes in Reformation-era Christianity. His latest book is called A World Ablaze: The Rise of Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation.

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Womanist theology and Mormonism, with Janan Graham-Russell [MIPodcast #65]

Janan Graham-Russell, Podcast

When you think about your religious beliefs, your theology, how much consideration have you given to your race? How has the color of your skin affected your understanding of God, of Jesus Christ, or of your religious community? Maybe you’ve never thought much about it. If you’re a black Latter-day Saint in America, you virtually can’t escape these kinds of questions. Many black American Latter-day Saints know that questions about the color of their skin and their faith are deeply intertwined. Add the component of gender and the questions multiply.

Janan Graham-Russell visited the Maxwell Institute this summer to talk about womanist theology—thinking about God from the perspective of black women. In this episode, she discusses race, identity, and theology.

About the Guest

Janan Graham-Russell is a writer and graduate of the Howard University School of Divinity. Her research focuses on womanist theology in Mormonism, and identity formation in racial communities. Her work has been featured in two books: Mormon Feminism: Essential Writings, and A Book of Mormons, as well as The Atlantic. She will continue her research this fall within the PhD program in The Study of Religion department at Harvard University. This week Janan joined us here at the Maxwell Institute for a discussion on race, identity, and theology.

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Heresy, opposition, and becoming gods, with Adam J. Powell [MIPodcast #64]

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.

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