Y Religion

You may or may not be able to visit foundational Church history sites like the Sacred Grove or Nauvoo, but thanks to Professor Craig Ostler and others at BYU you can go on a professionally guided video tour. For the last 20 years Dr. Ostler has worked to produce a series of 100 peer-reviewed videos of Church History locations called Hallowed Ground and Sacred Journeys. In this episode, get ready to go on an auditory Church history tour as Dr. Ostler gives insights from places like Palmyra, Mendon, Kirtland, Nauvoo, and Salt Lake City. What he shares helps us understand why there is power in experiencing the spirit of sacred sites.

Click here to watch BYU Virtual Tours videos discussed in this episode.

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Although we all come from different backgrounds and situations, we all are coming unto the same Savior. In this episode, Professor Eric Huntsman discusses insights from his book publication, Becoming the Beloved Disciple, about a purposeful theme in the gospel of John that highlights people in varied circumstances, and what we can learn from each of them about becoming beloved disciples of Christ.

The Lord told Emma Smith to “expound scriptures” by the Spirit, saying this was his “voice unto all.” So how did women of the Church in the 19th century use the scriptures, in particular the Bible, in their teaching, exhorting, and writing? In this episode, Dr. Amy Easton-Flake discusses her research publications about how early Latter-day Saint women used scripture to understand their divine roles and change their society, and why modern Latter-day Saint women should do the same.

Click here and here to read Professor Easton-Flake's articles on the subject.

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Joseph Smith’s First Vision is often the first story we tell in the narrative of the Restoration. But that was not always the case. It took about 50 years for the First Vision to become solidified as a foundational story of the Church. In this episode, BYU professor Steven Harper discusses his landmark research publication about how the First Vision was remembered and interpreted by Joseph Smith, and why thoughtfully doing the same today is essential for Latter-day Saints.

Click here to get Professor Harper’s book, or here or to read a published essay on the subject.

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The word anxiety (or anxious) is used nine times in the Book of Mormon, and it appears in both positive and negative forms. In the positive form it refers to something more akin to “eagerness” (see Mosiah 29:38 and 3 Nephi 3:3), whereas the negative refers more to “uncertainty” or “troubling fear” (see 2 Nephi 1:16 and Mosiah 28:12). Of the seven negative references, four are penned by the prophet Jacob, including one in which he couples “great anxiety” with the counterbalancing attribute of “faith” (see Jacob 1:5). In this episode Dr. Jared Halverson, associate professor of ancient scripture, discusses the mental, emotional, and spiritual issues related to anxiety as explained in the life and teachings of Jacob. Professor Halverson closely examines Jacob’s writings on the anxiety born of adversity (trauma), anxiety due to responsibility (pastoral perfectionism), and anxiety over one’s standing before God (scrupulosity). In analyzing Jacob’s words, we can find counsel and compassion, whether we struggle with anxiety or are anxious to support those who do.

Click here to learn more about Jared Halverson

Publications:

· “‘Because of Faith and Great Anxiety’: Jacob and the Challenges of Mental Health” (in Jacob: Faith and Great Anxiety, Religious Studies Center, 2024)

· “Protecting Our Strengths: Alma’s Counsel to Shiblon” (in Book of Mormon Insights: Letting God Prevail in Your Life, Religious Studies Center, 2024)

· “The Way, the Truth, and the Way to Truth: Harmony in Pursuit of Orthodoxy” (in I Glory in My Jesus: Understanding Christ in the Book of Mormon, Religious Studies Center, 2024)

· “Swine’s Blood and Broken Serpents: The Rejection and Rehabilitation of Worship in the Old Testament” (in Ascending the Mountain of the Lord: Temple, Praise, and Worship in the Old Testament, Religious Studies Center, 2013)

· “Lehi’s Dream and Nephi’s Vision as Apocalyptic Literature” (in The Things Which My Father Saw: Approaches to Lehi’s Dream and Nephi’s Vision, Religious Studies Center, 2011)

· “Of Soils and Souls: The Parable of the Sower” (in Religious Educator, 9.3, 2008)