In this episode of the Maxwell Institute Podcast, Adam S. Miller discusses his latest book Letters to a Young Mormon. Miller spends his days teaching philosophy to college students in Texas, but the most important lessons he’s prepared have been for the benefit of his own children. He composed Letters for them and for any young Mormon who is familiar with Mormon life but green in their faith. Letters encourages Mormons young and old to live in a way that refuses to abandon either life or Mormonism. Most importantly, even while dispensing wisdom, Miller wonders alongside us readers. Learn more about Miller’s new book here, read a free excerpt at the FAIRMormon blog, or pick up a copy on Amazon today.

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In this episode of the Maxwell Institute Podcast, physician and historian Samuel M. Brown discusses his book, In Heaven as It Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012). As the book’s jacket describes, “The world of early Mormonism was besieged by death—infant mortality, violence, and disease were rampant. A prolonged battle with typhoid fever, punctuated by painful surgeries including a threatened leg amputation, and the sudden loss of his beloved brother Alvin cast a long shadow over Smith’s own life. Smith embraced and was deeply influenced by the culture of ‘holy dying’—with its emphasis on deathbed salvation, melodramatic bereavement, and belief in the Providential nature of untimely death—that sought to cope with the widespread mortality of the period.” Brown explores how anticipation of death impacted the theological climate of early Mormonism. He also discusses his recent BYU Studies article, “Believing Adoption.” Through his historical research, Brown came to believe that in Joseph Smith’s theology, humans become the children of God through premortal adoption as opposed to being created in some sort of spirit-birth process. Brown reflects on reconciling his academic endeavors with his personal beliefs. You can download the article for two bucks here.

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This episode of the Maxwell Institute Podcast focuses on the topic of apologetics, or defending the faith. Myron Bradley Penner, an Anglican priest from Canada, discusses his new book, The End of Apologetics: Christian Witness in a Postmodern Context. In the book, Penner addresses problems he sees with certain modern apologetic methods, but they might not be what you expect. He writes: “When our concern is with how we believe, not only what we believe, and when being in the truth is just as important as possessing it, then our Christian witness must be such that it is edifying to those who receive our witness. Our passion for the truth is connected as much to the form our witness takes and how it is received, as it is to the content of that to which we witness” (The End of Apologetics, 138). We could only cover a few aspects of the book in this interview. Anyone interested in apologetics should consider picking up a copy.

About Myron Bradley Penner

Dr. Penner earned a BS and MA from Liberty University (Virginia) and a PhD from New College, Edinburgh University. He has taught at Prairie College and Graduate School and currently resides in Bolivia. In addition to The End of Apologetics, he is editor of Christianity and the Postmodern Turn: Six Views and coauthor of A New Kind of Conversation: Blogging Toward a Postmodern Faith. 

 Sources:

• Robert D. Hales, “Christian Courage: The Price of Discipleship,” October 2008 General Conference.
• Søren Kierkegaard, “The Difference between a Genius and an Apostle,” in The Book on Adler, ed. and trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), 173-88.
• John S. Tanner, “Of Men and Mantles: Kierkegaard on the Difference between a Genius and an Apostle,” BYU Studies 40/2 (2001): 149-64.
• Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, MA.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007).
• “God or Godless Edmonton Debate,” moderated by Myron Penner.

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“Here is something true: The imagination needs to be strong as the heart, sometimes stronger, because while to heart sustains the body, the imagination sustains the soul.“ —James Goldberg, The Five Books of Jesus

James Goldberg is a Mormon author with Jewish and Sikh roots and these background elements permeate his recent novel, The Five Books of Jesus. The story of Jesus has been told and retold, of course, for centuries. Over the past 200 years or so a “quest for the historical Jesus” has been launched, with archaeologists, theologians, and historians combing records and ruins for evidence of the life and teachings of Jesus. At the same time, another quest was launched—“the quest for the fictional Jesus.” It’s not a quest to disprove the existence of Jesus or the historical accounts of his life; it’s a new genre of writing about Jesus—Jesus novels. The works are as varied as the authors, and they employ a variety of literary strategies and promote different theological perspectives. One scholar who has studied the genre says Jesus novels offer contemporary authors and readers the opportunity to pose new questions and gain new insights from our ancient counterparts.

Find out how Goldberg’s The Five Books of Jesus fits into this genre in this episode of the Maxwell Institute Podcast. The Five Books of Jesus is available in ebook or classic form. The other book Goldberg recommends during the interview is Kristen Randle, Slumming (New York: HarperTeen, 2003), but it looks like copies are scarce. A great book on Jesus novels in general is Margaret E. Ramey, The Quest for the Fictional Jesus: Gospel Rewrites, Gospel (Re)Interpretation, and Christological Portraits within Jesus Novels (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2013). Thanks to Faded Paper Figures for providing music for this episode.

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This first episode of the Maxwell Institute Podcast features Fiona and Terryl Givens, authors of The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life. We talk briefly about the book—subjects like the character of God, premortality, and human agency—which you can learn more about in Episode 23 of “The Mormon Book Review.” This interview focuses more closely on the Givenses recent string of firesides and symposia discussing the navigation of faith crises. Fiona and Terryl speak about negotiations between faith and the intellect, individuality and Mormon culture, and plenty more besides.

Thanks for all of the questions you submitted through Facebook and email.

Selected sources mentioned in this episode:

• Edward Beecher, The Conflict of Ages: or, the great debate on the moral relations of god and man (Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Company, 1853), available on Google books and archive.org.
• Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “Lord, I Believe,” April 2013 General Conference.
• Neylan McBaine, “To Do the Business of the Church: A Cooperative Paradigm for Examining Gendered Participation Within Church Organizational Structure,” 2012 FAIR Conference.
• Gerrit Dirkmaat, “Great and Marvelous Are the Revelations of God,” Ensign (January 2013).

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