The academic study of religion has been around for a long time. And although there are many examples of books and articles that have used academic lenses to explore various aspects of Mormonism, it’s only in the past two decades that we’ve begun to see the formal rise of "Mormon Studies." In this episode, Brian Birch and Spencer Fluhman, two thought leaders in this emerging field, help us understand Mormon Studies. What types of inquiry fit under this umbrella term--and how settled is the definition? What are the key developments in the growth of the field? What institutions have Mormon Studies programs or are otherwise engaged in teaching of Mormonism in the academy? What are the prospects for the field's continued growth, and do prospective students have reasons to be cautious about finding academic careers should they make Mormon Studies one of their primary areas of emphasis? Birch and Fluhman are very forthcoming about these and other questions, and they also let us peek a little bit behind the curtain into past and contemporary debates at places like Utah Valley University and the Brigham Young University religion department, as well as the Neal A. Maxwell Institute. Along with Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon, who also has studied religion in the academy, they also share their own experiences studying their religion through academic lenses. How has it benefited their feeling at home within Mormonism? What other payoffs from their academic work have they felt in their own spiritual journeys?

The academic study of religion has been around for a long time. And although there are many examples of books and articles that have used academic lenses to explore various aspects of Mormonism, it’s only in the past two decades that we’ve begun to see the formal rise of "Mormon Studies." In this episode, Brian Birch and Spencer Fluhman, two thought leaders in this emerging field, help us understand Mormon Studies. What types of inquiry fit under this umbrella term--and how settled is the definition? What are the key developments in the growth of the field? What institutions have Mormon Studies programs or are otherwise engaged in teaching of Mormonism in the academy? What are the prospects for the field's continued growth, and do prospective students have reasons to be cautious about finding academic careers should they make Mormon Studies one of their primary areas of emphasis? Birch and Fluhman are very forthcoming about these and other questions, and they also let us peek a little bit behind the curtain into past and contemporary debates at places like Utah Valley University and the Brigham Young University religion department, as well as the Neal A. Maxwell Institute. Along with Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon, who also has studied religion in the academy, they also share their own experiences studying their religion through academic lenses. How has it benefited their feeling at home within Mormonism? What other payoffs from their academic work have they felt in their own spiritual journeys?

This episode on the gift of the Holy Ghost is the fourth in a series discussing what the Articles of Faith refer to as the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. All four episodes have featured Samuel M. Brown, author of the book First Principles and Ordinances: The Fourth Article of Faith in Light of the Temple, with this episode marking the third time he is joined by philosopher and theologian Adam Miller. How is the Holy Ghost, and more specifically the "gift of the Holy Ghost," generally viewed and discussed by Latter-day Saints? Do we as Mormons explore it with as much richness as it deserves? In this discussion, Brown and Miller focus primarily upon the Holy Ghost as seen most clearly in the deep relationships in which we are immersed in families as well as with each other in the body of Christ. In the ordinance in which the gift of the Holy Ghost is bestowed, the individual is first confirmed as a member of the church and congregation, and only then do they receive the Holy Ghost. Are both parts essential? Is the Holy Ghost even separable from the context of community? And might we also consider the congregation’s "common consent," its affirmative response in welcoming the individual into the community, as a key element of this most important ordinance? Is it in the ordinance itself that we "receive" the Holy Ghost, or might this simply be a promise of something fully received later? Finally, what is the purpose of the Holy Ghost? How does it affect us?

On Tuesday, August 4th, the LDS Church in conjunction with the Community of Christ held a press conference announcing the newest volume in the ongoing Joseph Smith Papers project. This new two-volume work contains high definition color pictures of each page of the Book of Mormon "printers manuscript" (owned by the Community of Christ) on one side of each page spread, with a transcription on the other. It will be a wonderful boon to scholars and others interested in the Book of Mormon and processes by which it came into print. What has overshadowed the news of this important publishing effort, however, is the fact that the book contains four full-color photographs of a chocolate-colored, striated stone that is purported to be the seer stone Joseph Smith used to receive the English words he used in dictating the Book of Mormon. Scholars and others well-read in Mormon origins have long known about this seer stone and its use in the translation process (and the Church last year actually released an essay in its Gospel Topics series that speaks about the stone), but actually seeing it has forced them to confront again--and startled others who are learning of it for the first time--just how steeped Joseph Smith and early saints were in what D. Michael Quinn has labeled a "magic world view." This publishing event now calls for careful and informed exposition. Didn’t Joseph Smith say there were interpreters (what Latter-day Saints came to refer to as Urim and Thummim) in the stone box containing the plates that were like spectacles attached to a breastplate? Did he use those interpreters at all? What, exactly (or as best we can tell from a scattered record), was the process by which the Book of Mormon came about? How did the words to speak come to Joseph? Were they printed English words that appeared on the interpreters/seer stone that he then said aloud to his scribes, or was the process less mechanical than that, more of a conceptual and revelatory process? With D. Michael Quinn, Ann Taves, and Ron Barney as expert guides, this two-part Mormon Matters episode explores these and many other questions about the processes. It also spends a significant amount of time on the more meta-issues that are now arriving for those startled to learn of or see the stones. How could we as a church allow for so long such a mismatch between the typical version, told both in prose and visual images, of Smith’s translation of the plates and what the historical record actually shows? Has there been a deliberate cover up, or something less deceptive and more understandable given the historical knowledge level of LDS leaders? How do these panelists, as well as Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon, frame for their scholarly and/or faith lives a full awareness of Smith’s use of stones and other "magical" objects?

On Tuesday, August 4th, the LDS Church in conjunction with the Community of Christ held a press conference announcing the newest volume in the ongoing Joseph Smith Papers project. This new two-volume work contains high definition color pictures of each page of the Book of Mormon "printers manuscript" (owned by the Community of Christ) on one side of each page spread, with a transcription on the other. It will be a wonderful boon to scholars and others interested in the Book of Mormon and processes by which it came into print. What has overshadowed the news of this important publishing effort, however, is the fact that the book contains four full-color photographs of a chocolate-colored, striated stone that is purported to be the seer stone Joseph Smith used to receive the English words he used in dictating the Book of Mormon. Scholars and others well-read in Mormon origins have long known about this seer stone and its use in the translation process (and the Church last year actually released an essay in its Gospel Topics series that speaks about the stone), but actually seeing it has forced them to confront again--and startled others who are learning of it for the first time--just how steeped Joseph Smith and early saints were in what D. Michael Quinn has labeled a "magic world view." This publishing event now calls for careful and informed exposition. Didn’t Joseph Smith say there were interpreters (what Latter-day Saints came to refer to as Urim and Thummim) in the stone box containing the plates that were like spectacles attached to a breastplate? Did he use those interpreters at all? What, exactly (or as best we can tell from a scattered record), was the process by which the Book of Mormon came about? How did the words to speak come to Joseph? Were they printed English words that appeared on the interpreters/seer stone that he then said aloud to his scribes, or was the process less mechanical than that, more of a conceptual and revelatory process? With D. Michael Quinn, Ann Taves, and Ron Barney as expert guides, this two-part Mormon Matters episode explores these and many other questions about the processes. It also spends a significant amount of time on the more meta-issues that are now arriving for those startled to learn of or see the stones. How could we as a church allow for so long such a mismatch between the typical version, told both in prose and visual images, of Smith’s translation of the plates and what the historical record actually shows? Has there been a deliberate cover up, or something less deceptive and more understandable given the historical knowledge level of LDS leaders? How do these panelists, as well as Mormon Matters host Dan Wotherspoon, frame for their scholarly and/or faith lives a full awareness of Smith’s use of stones and other "magical" objects?