News & Blog
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New Full-time Faculty Fellows
The Maxwell Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of two new full-time faculty fellows to start in 2025. Katharina Paxman (Philosophy) and Thomas Russell (Theatre and Media Arts) have been appointed by the university as the first two fellows to occupy these two-year rotational spots.
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Mormon 1-6: The Day of Grace
If we’re being honest, Mormon’s record is a pretty depressing read. Mormon himself is a refugee of war as a young child, tasked with adult responsibilities at only ten years old, thrust onto the front lines of military conflict as a teenager...
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3 Nephi 27-4 Nephi: For They Will Sell Me for Silver and for Gold
At the beginning of 3 Nephi 27, Jesus has completed his visit to the Nephites, and his ordained disciples have begun to preach his gospel throughout the land.
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3 Nephi 20-26: What I Want My Nephew to Know about Missions
Next week is an exciting one for our family: my nephew will leave the Mission Training Center and travel to the country in eastern Europe where he’s been called to serve.
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3 Nephi 17-19: Guarding the Body (Prayer as Vigil)
Jesus spends much of 3 Nephi 18 passing out gifts to an assembled multitude, usually by giving them first to his disciples.
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Art Highlight: Bible Illustrations
This artwork and its accompanying caption were created by Meranda Brodowski, a student artist and designer at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Meranda is from California and has worked at the Maxwell Institute since January. She is a Fine Arts Major at Brigham Young University, with an emphasis in technology. She strives to create inspiring artwork that represents her faith and testimony.
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3 Nephi 12-16: Ask, Seek, Knock
Christ’s Sermon at the Temple in Bountiful, like its close textual cousin, the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, is a feast and a puzzle.
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3 Nephi 8-11: Christ Comes to Bountiful, or Egypt Meets Sinai
The events described in 3 Nephi 8 at the death of Christ are a catalog of disaster. Tremendous thunderstorms spark wildfire, three days of total darkness isolate survivors in cells of grief, and the face of the land is contorted by earthquake into a death mask.
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3 Nephi 1-7: Back Where We Started
A few Sundays ago, a bishopric counselor sat on my living room couch, all smiles, to extend me a new calling: primary chorister. My heart sank. Primary chorister has been, for many years, high on my list of Church Assignments That Scare Me and That I Think I’ll Be Really Bad At.
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Fall 2024 Wonder of Scripture Lecture Schedule
This year, the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship will be hosting a Wonder of Scripture Lecture Series, every Friday at 11 AM. These lectures will be held in 3714 HBLL and uploaded to our YouTube channel for on-demand streaming.
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Helaman 13-16: Spreading Rumors and Contentions Upon all the Face of the Land
While an undergraduate at BYU, I spent six weeks in a large log cabin called Timp Lodge at Aspen Grove near the Sundance Ski Resort. At this biology camp, I took courses in Ecology, limnology (the study of lakes), and aquatic entomology.
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BYU’s Maxwell Institute announces new research initiatives, full-time fellowships for BYU faculty, and expanded campus offerings
Brigham Young University’s Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship has adopted four key research initiatives, says J.B. Haws, executive director. The Institute will center its efforts on the fields of Book of Mormon, Bible, Interfaith Understanding, and Latter-day Saint Discipleship.
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Helaman 7-12: Pride is More Than We Might Assume
Pride is a danger oft targeted by Latter-day Saints: in our scriptures, our lesson manuals, and our general conference addresses. We did not, of course, invent this orientation.
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Helaman 1-6: The Hero's Journey
Do you know this story? A young person of no special consequence happens across a seemingly nondescript object that turns out to be imbued with power. The object leads them on a journey through magical lands and unknown regions, toiling up forbidding mountains and facing their fears in murky forests.
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Alma 53-63: Happy for Someone Else’s Miracle
The stories associated with Helaman’s 2000 stripling warriors always stand out at the end of the book of Alma, even in a block of eleven chapters (Alma 53-63) filled with all kinds of action-packed episodes and characters. And rightly so, given how remarkable and memorable—and miraculous—the experiences of Helaman’s band truly were.
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Art Highlight: I Will Stand As the Oceans Roar
This artwork and its accompanying caption were created by Meranda Brodowski, a student artist and designer at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Meranda is from California and has worked at the Maxwell Institute since January. She is a Fine Arts Major at Brigham Young University, with an emphasis in technology. She strives to create inspiring artwork that represents her faith and testimony.
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Alma 43-52: The Irreplaceable Weapon
Shortly after I started my PhD program at the University of Edinburgh, my parents came to visit us in Scotland. Walking along the busy Princes Street, my dad couldn’t take his eyes off of the iconic Edinburgh Castle, which sits atop an extinct volcano in the center of the city.
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Alma 39-42: The Justice of God
Corianton was not the only soul to be disturbed by the scriptural language of punishment, misery, and retribution. What Christian has not been troubled by the prevalence of images of anger and doom that await the wicked?
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