IMPORTANT!
Please RSVP to John Boyack at john.boyack@utah.edu or (801) 587-8879 by Tuesday, December 06.
The aim of this panel is to provide an engaging and well-rounded discussion on how the LDS Church has engaged the academic study of Mormonism in recent years and the lessons and implications of these relationships. We have invited representatives from a variety of church affiliates to address their approach to the academy and share information on current and future programs and initiatives. The discussion will center around a handful of questions (listed below).
Proposed Questions
- From the perspective of your role, how is the command to seek learning “by study and also by faith” understood and applied? What principles inform the optimal balance between the two?
- Can you describe how the “information age” has affected institutional programs and methods?
- What lessons can be drawn from the history of the Church’s engagement with the secular academy?
- What are the most fruitful areas yet to be explored in the academic study of Mormonism?
- What are your three favorite scholarly works related to Mormonism?
About the Panelists
Elder Marlin K. Jensen
Marlin Jensen is a General Authority Emeritus of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where he served as Church Historian/Recorder and Executive Director of Church History Department. Among his many other responsibilities, he oversaw the development of the Joseph Smith Papers Project, the construction of the Church History Library, and the production of the Gospel Topics Essays. He currently serves on the Utah State Board of Regents.
Lisa Tait
Lisa Tait is a historian and writer at the Church History Library for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and holds a Ph.D. in American Literature and an interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Houston. She is an award-winning author who also serves on the executive committee of the Mormon Women’s History Initiative and on the board of the Mormon History Association. She is currently working on a biography of Susa Young Gates and researching the history of the Young Women’s organization.
J. Spencer Fluhman
J. Spencer Fluhman is Director of the Maxwell Institute of Religious Scholarship and associate professor of history at Brigham Young University. He is the award-winning author of A Peculiar People: Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America and serves on the Executive Council of the American Society of Church History. He is the current co-chair of the Mormon Studies Group in the American Academy of Religion.
Grant Underwood
Grant Understood is professor of history at Brigham Young University. He is author of the award winning The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism and Voyages of Faith: Explorations in Mormon Pacific. Prior to his current appointment, he served as a research historian in the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History at Brigham Young University. He is the founding co-chair of Mormon Studies Group in the American Academy of Religion.
All events are free and open to the public. Panel discussions are held in the Tanner Humanities Center, Room 101 (map) from 7:00-8:30pm. A short Q&A will follow. Please contact the Tanner Humanities Center directly for ADA accommodation at 801-581-7989.
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