Maxwell Institute Podcast

The Lectures on Faith teaches that, “…a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has the power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation.” But how much can we be asked to sacrifice? For Abraham, he seemed to have been asked to sacrifice in a myriad of ways. First, he placed his faith on the altar by waiting for a child with his wife, Sarah. Second, and more famously God commanded him to sacrifice his long-awaited son, Isaac on a literal altar. How can we approach this as modern Latter-day Saints with a context of near ancient eastern history and culture? We’ll discuss that and more on today’s episode of Abide: A Maxwell Institute Podcast. The post Abide: Genesis 18-23 appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

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Have you ever had anyone ask you “what is scripture?” For such a short question it has the possibility to open up into thousands of answers. For Latter-day Saints, it can be defined as “whatsoever [God’s representatives] shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost.” This definition is somewhat broader than many other Christian definitions of scripture, incorporating both written and spoken modes of inspiration. At the end of the day, though, scripture must be interpreted by the power of the Holy Ghost for edification. In the past several hundred years, though, some have looked to academic tools to prove the truth of religious texts. Professionals from fields like history, archaeology, and anthropology have sought to add detail from the empirical record to sacred texts. Those professionals are often women and men of faith. But what are the limits of using academic tools to “prove” religious truth? And how did that play out in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ during the first decades of the

Introduction: The world of the Old Testament, like our own day, is swimming in violence. From the direct and intimate violence of person-to-person interaction to the structural violence that reinforce hunger, war, and inequality, each of us is affected by others’ use of force. Despite this reality, or perhaps because of it, the Lord commanded us to “proclaim peace” to the world and to follow the Prince of Peace. In choosing peace we are rejecting our own desires for results, for others to bend to our will, in order to align our will with the Lord’s.  On today’s episode of “Abide: A Maxwell Institute Podcast,” we discuss Noah, the Tower of Babel, and violence, thinking broadly about what we can learn from violence in scripture. The post Abide: Genesis 6-11 and Moses 8 appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

Moses 7 features Enoch, a figure that receives scant attention in Genesis, but has an overwhelming impact on the Pearl of Great Price. Importantly, Enoch’s experience with God also shapes how we view the Father, His relationship to us, and recognize his character and disposition. In today’s episode of Abide, we discuss Moses 7 and how it contributes to Latter-day Saint ideas.  My name is Joseph Stuart, I’m the public communications specialist at the Maxwell Institute. Kristian Heal is a Research Fellow at the Institute, and each week we will be discussing the week’s block of reading from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ “Come, Follow Me” curriculum. We aren’t here to present a lesson, but rather to hit on a few key themes from the scripture block, so as to help fulfill the Maxwell Institute’s mission to “inspire and fortify Latter-day Saints in their testimonies of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and engage the world of religious ideas.” Today we are joined by special guest Terryl Gi

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A lot of time passes in Genesis 5. We see fathers and sons’ names and their ages when sons were sired. They lived a lot longer than we do now! In Moses 5 we receive far more detail about post-Eden life but without the connections to genealogy beyond Adam, Abel, Cain, and Lamech.  What are we to understand from these genealogies? What happens when we zoom way out, like in Genesis 5, or we zoom in and receive more detail, like in Moses 6? We’ll discuss that and more in this week’s episode of “Abide: A Maxwell Institute Podcast.” The post Abide: Genesis 5; Moses 6 appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

Please enjoy Dr. Jennifer Reeder’s 2021 Neal A. Maxwell Lecture! You can watch the address, with Dr. Reeder’s slides, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo7GR8ql_xY. The post Maxwell Institute Podcast #135: The Stuff of Discipleship, with Jennifer Reeder appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

“Adam fell that men might be. And men are that they might have joy.” Lehi’s declaration in 2 Nephi 2 is transformative in Latter-day Saint theology, transforming an event portrayed often in negative terms throughout Abrahamic faiths into something fulfilling and meaningful.  That isn’t the only way that Latter-day Saints understand the Fall differently than Jews, Christians, and Muslims. In today’s episode of Abide: A Maxwell Institute Podcast,  we explore the scriptural narratives of Eden, post-Eden life, agency, and much much more. The post Abide: Genesis 3–4 and Moses 4–5 appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

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In October 1995 at the General Relief Society meeting of LDS General Conference, then President Gordon B. Hinckley presented “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” It was the 5th of 6 proclamations–we now have 7. the most recent being the Proclamation on the Restoration in 2020. Church communications come in a variety of modes. Official Declarations as we talked about on out last podcast, are faced inwardly and dictate a significant shift in church doctrine or policy. They are then accepted by the body of the church by the law of common consent. The first proclamation in 1841 was given to the Saints scattered abroad–but in contrast since then proclamations have been generally oriented outwards toward the rest of the world.  President Hinckley considered the proclamation a “reaffirmation of standards, doctrines, and practices relative to the family.” While not canonized as scripture, the proclamation holds an important place in Latter-day Saint thought, practice, and belief.  The post Abide #25: The Fam

Spencer W. Kimball, his counselors, and their fellow apostles prayed about the revelation that Latter-day Saints have canonized as Official Declaration 2 in June 1978. They immediately let it be known that the Lord had told them that all worthy people, of any race, color, creed, or nationality, would be eligible for temple blessings and that men could be ordained. This lifted a racial restriction that had lasted for more than a century that denied ordination to men of Black African descent and the endowment and sealing ordinances to men, women, and children of Black African descent.  Importantly, President Kimball’s journey to receiving the revelation began decades earlier. Even as a boy he recognized how his neighbors treated Native Americans with distrust and disdain. He saw inequity and wanted to correct it. Although he did not know as a lad that he would receive a revelation with global consequences, it’s remarkable to me that something President Kimball noticed as a child would change The Church of Je

In September 1890, Wilford Woodruff, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, met with his counselors with a vexing problem. How could they, as prophets and the First Presidency of the Church, prevent their religion from being squashed by the federal government over the practice of plural marriage? They ultimately decided that the Lord had confirmed to them that “the time [had] come…to meet the requirements of the country, to meet the demands that have been made upon us, and to save the people.” When his counselors and apostles vowed to support him, Woodruff called for more than 1000 copies of his Manifesto to be sent “to the President, Cabinet, Senate & House of Reps & other leading Men” in order to end the arrests of polygamists. The Declaration was accepted and sustained by common consent at the next week’s General Conference. Most Latter-day Saints seem to have approved of the decision. However, some Saints abstained from voting, tacitly rejecting the Manifesto. At least on

Though raised as a Latter-day Saint in Utah, Samuel M. Brown was an atheist from an early age and proud of it. Yet, by his own account, God became an undeniable presence in his life. Now a faithful Latter-day Saint, this practicing research physician narrates some of the waypoints on his journey into believing and belonging. Some are dramatic–his wife’s cancer diagnosis or working in a hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic–while many are simple yet profound: being mistaken for a homeless person while a student at Harvard, growing to like little children and opera, and learning to bake cookies for others.  The post Maxwell Institute Podcast #133: Where the Soul Hungers with Samuel M. Brown appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

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The Constitution of the United States guarantees that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Despite that promise, Latter-day Saints in the nineteenth century sometimes found themselves as victims of legal and extralegal violence against their leaders and lay members alike. When Joseph Smith ran for President in 1844, he made religious freedom a central component of his campaign. In this episode of the Maxwell Institute Podcast, we speak with Dr. Spencer McBride, Associate Managing Historian of the Joseph Smith Papers Project, and the host of the Joseph Smith Papers Podcast, about his book Joseph Smith for President: The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom (Oxford University Press). The post Maxwell Institute Podcast #132: Joseph Smith for President with Spencer McBride appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

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In today’s episode of “Abide: A Maxwell Institute Podcast,” we are studying four of Joseph Smith’s revelations. Three of them, Sections 129-131 are written in Joseph Smith’s own style, you can hear him teaching the Saints. This makes sense; they are quite literally teachings from Joseph Smith in both personal and public settings, compiled and made available to the Saints. They form a sort of super-cut of Joseph Smith’s teachings, like watching you a YouTube compilation of an athlete’s highlights that is made for quick absorption. Section 132 is a different matter entirely. It’s a revelation that is a sustained theological document that, at times, also reads like a legal document. The voice is the Lord’s, and it covers one topic at great length: celestial marriage. It’s a section that requires skill and care to unpack. There is much to gain, to be sure, but readers should always recognize that their comfort level with the revelation and its implications for individuals, families, and communities.  The post