Dr. Andrew Reed is the Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding and an Associate Professor of Church History. He studied Russian, Ukrainian, and European history at Arizona State University and holds master’s degrees from both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.
He is currently working on a monograph on the well-known Russian orientalist and Hebraist Daniil Avraamovich Khvol’son and religious tolerance in nineteenth-century Russia, as well as a second monograph on interfaith theology and ethics. A major theme of his scholarship is the historical development of relationships among Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Dr. Reed teaches courses in comparative religion and church history. He serves as Chair of the BYU Council for Interfaith Engagement and is an organizer and participant in the Jewish–Latter-day Saint academic dialogue. He founded the BYU Interfaith Student Association (IFSA) in 2018.
In 2023, Dr. Reed was awarded an Arthur Vining Davis Foundations Grant for Interfaith Leadership and Religious Literacy ($166,063). The resulting project, Building Interfaith Leaders for Future Service to the World, provides essential funding to enable the BYU Council for Interfaith Engagement to help students and faculty develop greater awareness and understanding of the world’s faith traditions, while equipping students to become peacemakers and bridge builders upon graduation from BYU.
Also in 2023, Dr. Reed received a BYU Honors Program Alcuin Fellowship. As part of that fellowship, he will co-teach an HONRS 226 Social Sciences/Letters course titled “Blessed Are the Poor: Understanding Poverty Through History and Theology.”