News & Blog
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New Full-Time Faculty Fellow for Fall 2025
BYU’s Academic Vice President Justin Collings has appointed Steven Harper as a Maxwell Institute Faculty Fellow, filling one of the Institute’s two-year rotating fellowships. His term will begin in September 2025.
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Church News: 'God with us'
In a world of competing voices, discerning the Lord’s voice can feel more difficult than ever. But Rosalynde Welch, associate director of BYU’s Neal A. Maxwell Institute, says one book of scripture is equipped to help: the Doctrine and Covenants.
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"Meek and Lowly"
Meekness ranks so low on the mortal scale of things, yet so high on God’s: “For none is acceptable before God, save the meek andlowly in heart” (Moroni 7:44). The rigorous requirements of Christian discipleship cannot be met without the tutoring facilitated by meekness: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly” (Matthew 11:29). Jesus, the carpenter, “undoubtedly had experience making yokes” with Joseph, and thus the Savior gave us that marvelous metaphor (see Matthew 11:20).
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Reminder to Submit Artwork
The deadline for the 2025 Book of Mormon Art Contest is fast approaching. Remember to submit your artwork by June 1 at 11:59 PM. You can find the form by clicking on the Book of Mormon Art Contest tab or by clicking this link.
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2024 Annual Report Available Now
The Maxwell Institute’s 2024 Annual Report is now available to read online. Thank you for your support of the Institute this past year.
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Prisoners of Time (Adapted from Time by Philip L. Barlow)
As part of a course I taught years ago on “religion and the concept of Time” at Hanover College in Indiana, a bright college sophomore conducted an informal survey among her peers around campus. Her initial question was: “What is the first thing that comes to mind when I say the word ‘time’?” The first twenty responses she received were: “stress,” “intense,” “hourglass,” “goes fast,” “schedules,” “stress,” “always going,” “never enough,” “calendar,” “wasted,” “stress,” “restriction,” “chases us,” “clock,” “goes fast,” “ahhh! Stressful,” “running out,” “in motion,” “time flies,” and “stressful.”
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Seeing through Sticks, Stones, and Screens (Adapted from Seeing, by Mason Kamana Allred)
The Doctrine and Covenants is one of many tools at our disposal to develop our vision. As we expand the ways the Lord is able to enlighten our eyes, we will experience more instances of epiphany, or sudden strokes of revelation and insight. But we can also have more instances of “hierophany.” As the influential historian of religion Mircea Eliade explains, these are moments when the divine manifests itself in the profane, which here just means the everyday.
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Joseph Smith: A Choice Seer
I am aware that my wise and gentle friend Elder David B. Haight spoke about the Prophet Joseph a month ago. Please bear with me, therefore, as I seek to place the spotlight on the Seer in yet a different way on this Easter Sunday, during which our rejoicing is made more resplendent by the revelations and translations concerning Jesus that came to us through Joseph.
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To Climb the Ladder of Law (Adapted from Divine Law, by Justin Collings)
His thoughts soared far beyond the stars, but he worried about the wind. He had, in a sense, waited his whole life to preach this sermon. “He lived his life in crescendo,” a later admirer wrote, and this was to be a kind of climax. He had a dazzling vision to unfold, a soaring theology to set forth. He had friends to comfort and eternity to hold before their gaze. If only the wind would cooperate. If only his lungs could hold up. If only his voice would carry. If only he could find the words to match his message.
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Wonder of Scripture Lecture Archive
The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship concluded the Wonder of Scripture Lecture series on April 11, 2025, with a concluding lecture from Rosalynde Welch, Associate Director of the Institute. These lectures, organized by Maxwell Research Fellows Kimberly Matheson and Kristian Heal, have explored different books of scripture from various religions and inspired hundreds of students and faculty across campus. 24 speakers spanned two semesters, each bringing a unique perspective to scripture in and outside of the Latter-day Saint canon.
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Divine Silence and Indirection (Adapted from Revelation, by Janiece Johnson)
If revelation is abundant in the Restoration, then why are there times when we feel as though silence reigns? (38:12). At times we cry out, “O God where are thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?” (121:1–2). Even a half hour of “silence in heaven” in God’s timeline can feel like an eternity to us (88:95).
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Holy Records, Unholy Record-keeping (Adapted from Redeeming the Dead, by Amy Harris)
Joseph Smith’s teachings and revelations uniquely connected the seemingly mundane tasks of record-keeping to the theological bedrock of the Atonement and its ability to save each priceless soul. On one hand, this is not particularly surprising, given that Joseph’s first major revelatory action was to produce the Book of Mormon—a sacred text that emphasizes the importance of record-keeping as a bulwark against spiritual decay.
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For the Commandment Is a Lamp; and the Law Is Light
It is a privilege to speak to this distinguished group. I commend you or the service you render; let others be sarcastic about the legal profession. I respect those in your profession who practice advocacy without animosity. I admire those lawyers who go beyond merely resolving conflict by judicial decision—who manage conflict by peacemaking.
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Agency: A Power Grounded in Relationality (Adapted from Agency, by Terryl Givens)
Agency existed in those premortal worlds from which we come. And yet, we know that in some essential way agency became operative with new stakes and new conditions in the Garden of Eden. The Genesis narrative makes clear that human creation is not finished—we do not exist in any complete or perfect way—until the first human creation has been differentiated, organized, into two human entities.
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The Lord’s Invitation: You Are Capable and Needed (Adapted from Divine Aid, by Amy Easton)
“A great and marvelous work is about to come forth unto the children of men . . . Behold, the field is white already to harvest; therefore, whoso desireth to reap, let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God.” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:1, 3; 11:1, 3; 12:1, 3; 14:1, 3)
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New Full-Time Faculty Fellow for Fall 2025
The Maxwell Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Steven L. Peck as a full-time faculty fellow, with his two-year term slated to begin in September 2025. Dr. Peck is a professor of biology in Brigham Young University’s College of Life Sciences and the author of the Living Faith title Evolving Faith: Wanderings of a Mormon Biologist, published with the Maxwell Institute in 2015.
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A Radical Sabbath (Adapted from Time by Philip L. Barlow)
When modeling and teaching of the Sabbath, my goodly parents, Latter-day Saints from birth, were encouraging rather than heavy-handed. This was prudent, given their children’s temperaments. Despite wise and faithful parents, a vague reluctance sometimes came upon my young self when the declining Saturday afternoon sun made long shadows. Thoughts of the morrow–a more regulated day–encroached. Transposing my imagination from an antebellum Missouri village to the twentieth-century suburbs of Salt Lake City, I retained enough Tom Sawyer in my blood to find the prospect of preachings and formal Sunday attire to be constricting.
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Insights from My Life
Elder Maxwell seldom spoke autobiographically because he did not like to draw attention to himself, but members of his family encouraged him to share some personal experiences and lessons he learned from them.
Elder Maxwell was in the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy when he delivered this devotional address at Brigham Young University on October 26, 1976.
Elder Maxwell was in the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy when he delivered this devotional address at Brigham Young University on October 26, 1976.
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