Religious Education Commons^™

Why Not Say "A"?, Milo A. Rediger

Milo Rediger Writings & Addresses

Clear thinking is hard work, especially when you go out into the world where the dust of commerce and confusion never settles. It is important, though not easy, to see clearly what are the issues and to determine courses of action relative to them.

Positive, thoughtful and dedicated living in Christ's way is the answer for our time. To be sure, this is different from the thinking of the secular world, but it appeals to, and challenges, the best blood and brains. It is now yours to apply what you have learned and to continue the education that was started …

Faith Integration Essay: Biblical And Theological Studies, Victor I. Ezigbo

Faith Learning Integration Papers

This essay discusses two major themes, "Faith, Theology, and Guiding Principles for Theological Reflection" and "Christian Gospel and the Public Sphere".

The introduction begins as follows, "The term ‘faith’ is notoriously slippery. Theologians as well as Christians who do not have any formal theological education use the term ‘faith’ sometimes in competing ways. For example, some use ‘faith’ as a shield for protecting themselves from people who ask questions about God’s existence and actions in the world. For such people, faith opposes reason. They see ‘faith’ as “an antithesis of reason” and also construe “reason as an intellectual virus that …

How Far Is Your Love?, Milo A. Rediger

Milo Rediger Writings & Addresses

No abstract provided.

Talk To (Students) Faculty, Milo A. Rediger

Milo Rediger Writings & Addresses

No abstract provided.

What Is A Christian College?, Milo A. Rediger

Milo Rediger Writings & Addresses

What is a Christian college? If it is Christian, it is a good college; it cannot be Christian and condone either inferiority or mediocrity -- it emphasizes excellence or it should not be dignified with the name Christian. It cannot accept all of the young people of a given denomination just because the churches of that denomination support it with finances. Suitability of students is one of the five major concerns of a Christian college.

Goals, procedures, teachers, students, and the college image are the focal points of this presentation.

Conceptualizing Therapy As A Spiritual Discipline, Kristen M. White

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

Psychological literature is in the beginning stages of reflecting the Church’s shift toward spiritual formation, incorporating theory and research regarding how spiritual disciplines might be relevant to the practice of therapy. This work may be expanded by viewing therapy itself as a spiritual discipline, particularly for the client. This article makes this connection by clearly defining spiritual disciplines and highlighting how therapy is or can be made congruent with them. It further discusses how therapy may be a very useful spiritual discipline within the Church today. Lastly, this article discusses the implications for viewing therapy as a spiritual discipline for …

Immigration Debates In America (Calvin Shorts), William Katerberg

Calvin Press

Immigration Debates in America begins in the 1830s and 1840s, with campaigns against Irish-Catholic immigration. Then it turns to anti-Chinese legislation (1870s-1920s), immigration policies about Europeans (1880s-1920s), the rejection of Jewish refugees from Hitler's Germany (1930s), the Mexican American border region, and Muslim immigration today.

Lost & Found: New Harvest, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Presentations and other scholarship

Lost & Found is a strategy card-to-mobile game series that teaches medieval religious legal systems with attention to period accuracy and cultural and historical context.

Set in Fustat (Old Cairo) in the 12th century, a great crossroads of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. The Lost & Found games project seeks to expand the discourse around religious legal systems, to enrich public conversations in a variety of communities, and to promote greater understanding of the religious traditions that build the fabric of the United States. Comparative religious literacy can build bridges between and within communities and prepare learners to be responsible citizens …

End Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

The Teachings Of Church Leaders Regarding The Crucifixion Of Jesus Christ: 1852–2018, John Hilton Iii, Emily K. Hyde, Mckenna Grace Trussel

BYU Studies

From the beginnings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (herein referred to as “the Church”), the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ has been at the heart of its theology. In numerous revelations received by Joseph Smith, the Savior is identified as having been “crucified for the sins of the world” (D&C 53:2; see also 21:9, 35:2, 46:13, 54:1, 76:41). President Brigham Young taught that salvation was only “through the name and ministry of Jesus Christ, and the atonement he made on Mount Calvary.”¹ President John Taylor said that Christ “was crucified and put to death to atone …

Good Grief, Sarah Hafen D'Evegnee

BYU Studies

Having happily served a mission myself, I was convinced that the only tears I would shed when I said goodbye to my oldest son would be tears of maternal joy. However, as his departure date loomed larger on the calendar, the metal harness of time strapped me in, and I felt nauseous as I anticipated the whoosh of the release of air just before being whisked straight upward and then plummeted to certain death—the thrill and the terror of knowing that I had not only signed up for this ride, but I had waited in line and I was the …

“By Study And Also By Faith”, J Gordon Daines Iii

BYU Studies

At their inception, universities were places where all branches of learning—both the sacred and the secular—were studied. At the great medieval universities, for instance, faith and academic excellence were intertwined,¹ and this strong connection continued in the universities of the New World. Most American research universities began as religiously affiliated colleges whose missions were to develop Christian character and foster faith in order to prepare men for the ministry or work in the government.² But, beginning in the late nineteenth century and continuing over the course of the twentieth century, the vast majority of these research universities abandoned …

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

James E. Talmage And Scientific Consulting In Early Modern Utah, Gregory Seppi

BYU Studies

A devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, James E. Talmage (1862–1933) is perhaps best remembered today for his classic theological text Jesus the Christ.¹ He is also remembered by some for his extensive academic ties to Brigham Young Academy, the Latter-day Saints College, and the University of Utah.² Yet the image many Latter-day Saints have of Talmage sedately writing Jesus the Christ in the Salt Lake Temple has seemingly little in common with the trail-worn scientist covered in mining debris who emerges from his journals. Talmage spent much of his time from the …

Front Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Grace, Legalism, And Mental Health Among The Latter-Day Saints, Daniel K. Judd, W. Justin Dyer

BYU Studies

Martin Luther (1483–1546), a central figure of the Protestant Reformation, is one of many who have experienced tension between the perceived necessity of their own good works and the grace of God in the process of salvation. Soon after the young Luther entered the monastery in preparation to become a priest, he began to experience the consequences of his legalistic beliefs. Reflecting on this experience later in life, he wrote:

The History Of The Book Of Mormon Text, Royal Skousen

BYU Studies

In this paper, I will provide an overview of the two latest published books in the Book of Mormon critical text project:

Part 5: The King James Quotations in the Book of Mormon

Part 6: Spelling in the Manuscripts and Editions

As the numbers indicate, these two books form a part of a much larger publishing project. The fundamental work in the project is The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text, published in 2009 by Yale University Press and now in its fourth printing. Supporting this single volume of the text are the volumes of the critical text project …

The Strengths And Challenges Of Contemporary Marriages Of Members Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Dean M. Busby, David C. Dollahite

BYU Studies

Many people follow religious beliefs, principles, and practices because they believe these will lead to a higher quality of marriage and family life.¹ It is clear from the extant research that belonging to and practicing a religion can lead to improved outcomes that benefit couples and families. A large body of social science research indicates that religion has salutary influence on a number of personal and relational outcomes, including greater physical and mental health,² positive psychological outcomes in adolescence,³ better marital relationships and higher fidelity,⁴ transformation in marital relationships,⁵ reduced anxiety,⁶ marital stability,^{7 …}

The Rain On Alan Avenue, J. S. Absher

BYU Studies

How the Missionaries Came to Marion, Virginia, 1955

In that far year when I was a child (you were not yet), I saw how rain on long afternoons can chitter and chat, gurgling and chortling out the downspout, its sing-song tune boring a brat with nothing to do.

Gay Rights And The Mormon Church: Intended Actions, Unintended Consequences, Tom Christofferson

BYU Studies

When valedictorian Matt Easton spoke to his graduating classmates in the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences at Brigham Young University in April 2019 and pronounced himself “proud to be a gay son of God,”¹ it was notable—not for the frank self-identification, nor because college administration had preapproved the speech. Rather, what was remarkable was the instant, energetic, and sustained cheers and applause from the large Marriott Center audience.

Gay Rights And The Mormon Church: Intended Actions, Unintended Consequences, W. Justin Dyer

BYU Studies

In this book, Gregory Prince compiles and examines available records of how individual leaders within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Church as an institution have approached issues of homosexuality and same-sex marriage. The compilation is most welcome as it provides many useful sources to understand how the Church and its leaders have discussed and acted on these issues. The book is an important reference, and I have gone back to it again and again to reference its timelines and sources.

Mormons, Musical Theater, And Belonging In America By Jake Johnson, Megan Sanborn Jones

BYU Studies

In his ambitious first book, musicologist Jake Johnson examines how and why the vocal and theatrical traditions of American musicals are evidenced in the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At the heart of this examination are close readings of a number of popular American musicals and what Johnson sees as their Utah counterparts— Oklahoma! and Promised Valley; Fiddler on the Roof and Life . . . More Sweet than Bitter; The Book of Mormon and Saturday’s Warrior. Part history, part literary criticism, part religious studies, and part music studies, Mormons, Musical Theater, and …

Immigrants, The Bible, And You (Calvin Shorts), Amanda W. Benckhuysen

Calvin Press

How does our Christian faith affect the way we think about immigration? What does the Bible say about immigrants that can help Christians respond faithfully to the current refugee and asylee crises? What does it look like to love our migrant neighbors? This book explores biblical perspectives on immigration in order to help Christians reflect theologically on issues related to immigration today.

“Effusions Of An Enthusiastic Brain”, Jeremy Talmage

BYU Studies

[I] wanted to get Religion too,” reminisced the Latter-day Saint prophet Joseph Smith. “[I] wanted to feel & shout like the Rest but could feel nothing.”¹ A wide-eyed witness of the nineteenth-century religious revivals that enveloped western New York, Smith made this lament to a close acquaintance shortly before his death in 1844. Reflecting back on the religious excitement of his youth, he detailed how he longed for a spiritual manifestation like many others enjoyed but for whatever reason seemed unable to experience the evangelical enthusiasm he so deeply desired. As a fourteen-year-old adolescent, Smith had been torn among …

Business And Religion: The Intersection Of Faith And Finance, Roger Terry

BYU Studies

If you are interested in the intersection of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and finance, you will be intrigued by this compilation of papers presented at a March 2018 symposium sponsored by the Department of Religious Education at Brigham Young University and the Church History Department in Salt Lake City. The topics are many and varied and are divided loosely into the four sections of this volume.

A Documentary History Of The Book Of Mormon, John W. Welch

BYU Studies

Larry Morris, a veteran researcher of everything related to Oliver Cowdery and early Latter-day Saint history, has provided the world with this fine collection of primary historical sources relevant to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Published by Oxford University Press, this formal presentation of his fascinating compilation will certainly be interesting, convenient, credible, and crucial in the hands of historians (in the rigorous documentary sense of that word) as well as in the hearts of amateurs (in the best Latin sense of that word).

Moth And Rust: Mormon Encounters With Death, Connie Lamb

BYU Studies

Latter-day Saints view death as part of the plan of salvation and some have even claimed to have glimpsed the afterlife. Thus, as the book’s introduction explains, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a good understanding of death and the afterlife, but many still fear dying (x). Despite Church teachings on the temporary nature of death, the death of someone dearly loved can still cause a Latter-day Saint to face stark reality and ask serious questions. Moth and Rust captures Latter-day Saints’ varying experiences and demonstrates the many ways death can be conceived.

Mormon Cinema: Origins To 1952, Veronica Anderson

BYU Studies

Mormon Cinema: Origins to 1952 is the first book in a series by Randy Astle discussing Latter-day Saint cinema and its history. In the introduction, the author describes the five chronological “waves,” or eras, in Latter-day Saint film (10–12). In this first volume, he discusses the first two waves, the first running from July 1898 to October 1929, and the second spanning October 1929 to January 1953. A discussion of the following waves and an in-depth analysis of all the information presented will appear in subsequent books (7).