James E. Faulconer has spent his career enriching the scripture study of Latter-day Saints, offering powerful tools to improve engagement with the word of God. His latest book continues that project. Thinking Otherwise: Theological Explorations of Joseph Smith’s Revelations. It’s the latest volume in the Maxwell Institute’s Living Faith book series.

Our guest host today is Dr. Morgan Davis, co-editor of the Living Faith series.

About the Guest

James E. Faulconer is a professor of philosophy at Brigham Young University and a senior research fellow at the Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Faulconer’s area of expertise is twentieth-century and contemporary European philosophy, especially the philosophy of religion. In addition to writing scholarly books and articles, he is the author of the Made Harder series of scripture study questions and Scripture Study: Tools and Suggestions.

Dr. Ravi Gupta joins guest host Philip Barlow to talk about faith and scholarship. Dr. Gupta was a visiting scholar at the Maxwell Institute this semester, and a previous guest on the Maxwell Institute Podcast. He’s a practicing Hindu and also a scholar of Hinduism, and he’s become a close friend of the Institute over the past few years. He’s known Dr. Barlow for even longer, so you’ll hear two old friends talking about the benefits and drawbacks of being a believer and a scholar of one’s own religious tradition.

About the Guest

Ravi M. Gupta is the Charles Redd Professor of Religious Studies at Utah State University. He is the author or editor of four books, including an abridged translation (with Kenneth Valpey) of the Bhagavata Purana, one of India’s most beloved sacred texts in the Sanskrit language. Ravi holds a doctorate in Hindu Studies from Oxford University and has taught at the University of Florida, Centre College, and the College of William and Mary. His current interests have drawn him to religion and ecology.

What a journey it’s been through the Book of Mormon over the past year, and what a year it’s been to take a journey through the Book of Mormon!

David F. Holland joins us in this episode to talk about his brief theological introduction to the final book—the book of Moroni. Spencer Fluhman, executive director of the Maxwell Institute, returns as guest host. Learn more about the brief theological introduction series at mi.byu.edu/brief.

Note: Dr. Holland refers to this article by Philip L. Barlow: “To Mend a Fractured Reality.” 

About the Guest

David Holland is the John Bartlett Professor of New England Church History at Harvard Divinity School and the Director of Graduate Studies in Religion at Harvard University. He is the author of Sacred Borders: Continuing Revelation and Canonical Restraint in Early America, published by Oxford University Press.

Literary scholar Rosalynde Frandsen Welch explores the book of Ether as a sweeping history in which Moroni, absorbed in the past, turns his heart to future readers whose spiritual fate will be at stake. This latest episode in our series about the brief theological introductions to the Book of Mormon focuses on Welch’s Ether. James E. Faulconer takes the lead as guest host.

About the guest

Rosalynde Frandsen Welch is an independent scholar of Latter-day Saint literature and theology. She earned a PhD in early modern English literature from the University of California at San Diego. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on Latter-day Saint scripture, culture, and theology. She has served as a codirector of the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminary and as associate editor at the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies.

We’re continuing our series talking with authors of the brief theological introductions to the Book of Mormon. Adam Miller is here to talk about his volume on Mormon—a book that he calls “a beginner’s guide to the end of the world.” Mormon testifies of Christ even as everything he loves seems to be slipping through his fingers.

For the last few episodes in this series we wanted to get series editors on the mic to talk to the authors. So this episode features guest host Spencer Fluhman, executive director of the Maxwell Institute and co-editor of the brief theological introductions to the Book of Mormon series.

Christopher Blythe’s new book focuses on Latter-day Saint views of the end of the world, which might seem like it’s a little on the nose, but here we are!

Blythe goes back to the beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to find out how early church members thought about the apocalypse—the cataclysmic end of the world which would usher in a new peaceful era under the reign of Jesus Christ. The more tension Latter-day Saints felt with the United States where the church began, the more intense their ideas about how it would all turn out became. But Blythe says violent visions of end times destruction began to fade as the church became more mainstream in American culture.

About the Guest

Christopher James Blythe is a Research Associate at the Maxwell Institute’s Laura F. Willes Center for Book of Mormon Studies. In 2019 he was named co-editor of the Journal of Mormon History. He also is co-president of the Folklore Society of Utah. His new book is Terrible Revolution: Latter Day Saints and the American Apocalypse. He has coedited two volumes of the Joseph Smith Papers Documents series.

Daniel Becerra joins us to talk about his book 3rd, 4th Nephi: a brief theological introduction. Becerra says these pivotal books, depicting Christ’s visit to ancient peoples on the American continent, serve as a guidebook in the disciple’s pursuit of Christ and Christlikeness. What do they reveal about the nature of God, about human nature, and how the gap between the two might be bridged?

For more about the brief theological introductions series, see mi.byu.edu/brief.

About the Guest

Daniel Becerra is an assistant professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University and a scholar of early Christianity.

Author Kimberly Matheson Berkey says book of Helaman is one of the best-kept secrets in the Book of Mormon. It marks a dramatic reversal in the history of Book of Mormon peoples. The spiritual tables turn. While the Lamanites righteously cast their eyes toward heaven, the Nephites take their first steps toward a surprising precipice where final destruction awaits.

About the Guest

Kimberly Matheson Berkey is a doctoral student in theology at Loyola University Chicago, where she studies the philosophy of religion. She serves on the boards of the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar and the Book of Mormon Studies Association and has contributed several articles to the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.

It isn’t every day that a scholar publishes a book that changes the entire landscape of a field of study, but that’s exactly what Robert Alter did in 1981 with his book, The Art of biblical Narrative. For centuries and more, scholars had meticulously studied the Bible to tease out the voices those who compiled it, but Robert Alter paid attention to the finished product to see what the stories had to say in their completed form. It’s hard to overestimate Alter’s influence on literary studies of the Bible—looking at plot, genre, character, and more. And now Alter has finished his own complete translation of the Hebrew Bible—a mammoth task that took quarter of a century.

In this episode, Robert Alter joins us to talk about the challenges and surprises of biblical translation. He visited the Maxwell Institute earlier this year to deliver a set of guest lectures which you can watch here.

About the Guest

Robert Alter is Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, where he has taught since 1967. He has written widely on the European novel from the eighteenth century to the present, on contemporary American fiction, and on modern Hebrew literature. He is especially well-known for his work on the literary aspects of the Bible. His twenty-two published books include two prize-winning volumes on biblical narrative and poetry, and award-winning translations of the Five Books of Moses. In 2019 he published The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, and The Art of Biblical Translation.

In this episode we introduce you to a story about a man who was seeking for the true church of Christ. A man who prayed and then reported miraculous visitations. He recorded revelations about the true nature of God and how the true church should be built up, ultimately inspiring a large body of converts. If all of this sounds familiar, here’s the surprising part: This man started this particular movement in China in 1917.

Melissa Inouye joins us to talk about a restorationist Christian movement in China, which continues to exist today despite strict Chinese control of religion. We’re talking about her book, China and the True Jesus: Charisma and Organization in a Chinese Christian Church.

About the Guest

Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye is author of the new book, China and the True Jesus: Charisma and Organization in a Chinese Christian Church, from Oxford University Press. She received her Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University in 2011 and served as a Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Auckland. She now works for the Church History Department with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.