Past Wonder of Scripture Lectures
Richard Bushman
September 19 Special Opening Lecture
Richard Bushman is Gouverneur Morris Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University. Professor Bushman specializes in the social and cultural history of the United States. He received his B.A., M.A., and PhD from Harvard University. Professor Bushman is best known to Latter-day Saints as the inaugural Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University (2008-2011) and the author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (2005) and, most recently, Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History (Oxford 2023).
Thomas Griffith
September 20 Lecture
Thomas B. Griffith was a judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit from 2004-2020. Currently he is a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and a Fellow at the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University. He graduated in 1978 from Brigham Young University, where he majored in humanities with an emphasis in comparative literature, and in 1985 from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was an editor of the law review. Before he was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals, Judge Griffith worked in private practice in North Carolina and Washington D.C. (1985-1994), Senate Legal Counsel of the United States (1995-1999) and assistant to the president and general counsel of BYU (2000-2004).
Justin Collings
September 27 Lecture
Justin Collings is the academic vice president of Brigham Young University. Dr. Collings’s focuses of study are constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, and constitutional history. In 2006, Dr. Collings graduated with a BA from BYU, double-majoring in English and Italian and minoring in classical civilization. He went on to earn a JD and a PhD in history from Yale. After serving as a law clerk for Judge Guido Calabresi of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, he joined the J. Reuben Clark Law School’s faculty in 2013. He is the author of two books published by Oxford University Press: Democracy’s Guardians: A History of the German Federal Constitutional Court, 1951–2001 (2015) and Scales of Memory: Constitutional Justice and Historical Evil (2021). Dr. Collings is also the author of the forthcoming book Divine Law for the Maxwell Institute series, Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants.
Terryl Givens
October 4 Lecture
Terryl L. Givens is a Neal A. Maxwell Senior Research Fellow. He formerly held the Jabez A. Bostwick Chair of English and was Professor of Literature and Religion at the University of Richmond. He is the author of many books about Latter-day Saint history and culture, including Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought, Feeding the Flock: The Foundations of Mormon Practice, and By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture That Launched a New World Religion, each with Oxford University Press. He is also co-author, with Fiona Givens, of The God Who Weeps, The Crucible of Doubt, and The Christ Who Heals. He is also the author of the volume on Agency in the Maxwell Institute series, Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants.
Gaye Strathearn
October 11 Lecture
Gaye Strathearn is a professor in the Department of Ancient Scripture and in the Ancient Near East Studies program at BYU, and currently serves as an Associate Dean of Religious Education. She has taught at BYU since 1995, including a year at BYU’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. Dr. Strathearn received her bachelor of physiotherapy from the University of Queensland (Australia, 1982), a BA and MA in Near Eastern studies from BYU (1990 and 1992), and a PhD in religion (New Testament) from the Claremont Graduate University (2004). Professor Strathearn is the editor of six books and the author of dozens of chapters and articles on New Testament topics and the Book of Mormon.
Sharon Harris
October 18 Lecture
Sharon Harris is Associate Professor of English at Brigham Young University. Dr. Harris has degrees in Music Education from BYU, Humanities from the University of Chicago, and English from Fordham University. Her research and teaching focuses on early modern English literature and music and sound studies. In addition to literary studies, Dr. Harris has published on theology, the Book of Mormon, and the history of Latter-day Saint singles wards. She has worked in public education, nonprofit arts administration, and academic publishing. She is the author of Enos, Jarom, Omni: A Brief Theological Introduction (Maxwell Institute, 2020).
Heather Chesnut
October 25 Lecture
Heather is a civil rights attorney at the Utah Attorney General’s Office; she defends Utah state agencies and employees against civil lawsuits. Before that, she was a trial attorney with the Salt Lake Legal Defenders Association; she defended indigent people charged with criminal offenses. She has taken more than forty cases to trial, conducted an extensive defensive motion practice, and counseled hundreds of people facing difficult legal situations. She received Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Utah. Heather is the author of Counsel, Please Rise: A Criminal Attorney’s Spiritual Journey, published this year by the Maxwell Institute and Deseret Book.
Kylie Nielson Turley
November 1 Lecture
Kylie Nielson Turley has taught writing, rhetoric, and literature classes since 1997 at Brigham Young University, where she emphasizes a literary approach to the Book of Mormon in her Literature of the LDS People course. She has published articles on Alma, Latter-day Saint "home literature" fiction and poetry, and Utah and Latter-day Saint women's history. She is also the author of numerous personal essays. She is the author of Alma 1-29: A Brief Theological Introduction (Maxwell Institute, 2020).
Joseph Spencer
November 8 Lecture
Joseph M. Spencer is a philosopher and an associate professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. He has degrees from Brigham Young University, San Jose State University, and the University of New Mexico, having earned his PhD in philosophy from the University of New Mexico in 2015. He is the author (or co-author) of seven books, most recently A Word in Season: Isaiah’s Reception in the Book of Mormon (University of Illinois Press, 2023). His work focuses on philosophy, theology, and scripture. Professor Spencer serves as the President of the Book of Mormon Studies Association, as the associate director of the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar, and as a coeditor of the book series, Introductions to Mormon Thought (published by the University of Illinois Press).
Ravi Gupta
November 15 Lecture
Ravi M. Gupta holds the Charles Redd Chair of Religious Studies and serves as Professor and Department Head of the Department of History at Utah State University. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Boise State University (1999) and his MSt in the Study of Religion (2000) and DPhil in Hinduism (2004) from the University of Oxford. He is the author or editor of four books, including an abridged translation of the Bhagavata Purana (with Kenneth Valpey), published in 2017 by Columbia University Press. Professor Gupta is a Permanent Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and a past president of the Society for Hindu Christian Studies. His current research focuses on the Bhagavata Purana's Sanskrit commentaries. He enjoys teaching World Religions, Hinduism, Sanskrit, and Religious Studies Theory and Method.
John W. Welch
November 19 Annual Neal A. Maxwell Lecture
John W. Welch is the Robert K. Thomas Professor of Law emeritus in BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School. He is scholar of religion and law credited with discovering the many instances of the ancient literary form of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon, a realization he had as a young missionary in Germany. Professor Welch received his bachelor’s degree in history and his master’s degree in Latin and Greek, both from Brigham Young University. He then studied at Oxford and later received his JD from Duke University. In 1979 he founded the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) while working as a lawyer in southern California. He was editor-in-chief of BYU Studies for 27 years, a contributing author for the Joseph Smith Papers project, editor for the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, and the General Editor of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley. He is the author and editor of numerous books and is one of the greatest living expositors of the Book of Mormon, known especially for his important books, The Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount (Deseret Book, 1990), and The Legal Cases in the Book of Mormon (BYU, 2008).
Kimberly Matheson
December 6 Lecture
Kimberly Matheson is the Laura F. Willes Research Fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Her research centers on Book of Mormon theology, Christian contemplative practice, and the continental philosophy of religion. Kimberly holds a PhD in theology from Loyola University Chicago, an MTS in philosophy of religion from Harvard Divinity School, and a BA in ancient near east studies from Brigham Young University. She is the author of Helaman: A Brief Theological Introduction (Maxwell, 2020) and sits on the boards of the Book of Mormon Studies Association and the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar.
Jared Halverson
January 17 lecture
Jared Halverson is an associate professor of Ancient Scripture, coming to BYU after 24 years of serving in the Church Educational System. Raised in Texas and Southern California, he came to BYU originally as a Presidential Scholar and wide receiver on the football team, leaving to serve a mission in Puerto Rico and returning to teach at the Missionary Training Center. He earned a BA in History and an MA in Religious Education from BYU, and an MA and PhD in American Religious History from Vanderbilt University, focusing on secularization, faith loss, and anti-religious rhetoric. He is frequently involved with interfaith dialogue, has been a featured speaker in both devotional and academic settings from coast to coast, and hosts a popular YouTube channel and podcast called "Unshaken." He also works one-on-one with people around the world experiencing faith crisis.
Rabbi Sam Spector
January 24 Lecture
Rabbi Samuel L. Spector has been the rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami in Salt Lake City since 2018. He was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. He attended the University of California, San Diego and graduated with Cum Laude honors with a B.A. in Judaic Studies. He received his Masters in Hebrew Letters and Rabbinic Ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. Prior to coming to Congregation Kol Ami, Rabbi Spector served as the Associate Rabbi of Temple Judea in Tarzana, California. He is currently a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and serves on the advisory board for the Salt Lake Chamber and the Christian Center of Park City.
Philip Barlow
January 31 Lecture
Philip Barlow is a Senior Research Fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University. Previously he was the inaugural Leonard J. Arrington Professor of Mormon History & Culture at Utah State University. His book-length writings on religion have contemplated such arenas as belief (A Thoughtful Faith for the 21st Century, editor; Faith Matters, 2025), religion and “place” (the New Historical Atlas of Religion in America, with Edwin Scott Gaustad), and scripture (Mormons and the Bible). With Terryl Givens he is the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Mormonism. He is the author most recently of Time for the Maxwell Institute series, Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants (Maxwell Institute and Deseret Book, 2024).
Amy Harris
February 7 Lecture
Amy Harris is a professor of history at Brigham Young University, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and an accredited genealogist. She currently serves as the coordinator of BYU’s Family History Bachelor’s Program. Her research focuses on families, women, and gender in eighteenth-century Britain. She recently published Being Single in Georgian England: Families, Households, and the Unmarried (Oxford, 2023), which uncovers family dynamics beyond couplehood and parenthood to reveal how unmarried or childless people shaped family life, childrearing, and genealogical practices in the eighteenth century. Her most recent book is Redeeming the Dead for the Maxwell Institute series, Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants (Maxwell Institute and Deseret Book, 2024).
Patrick Mason
February 14 Lecture
Patrick Q. Mason holds the Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University, and was previously the Howard W. Hunter Chair in Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University. He has written or edited several books, including Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt (Maxwell Institute and Deseret Book, 2015) and Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict (Maxwell Institute and Deseret Book, 2021). He was a Fulbright Scholar in Romania in 2015 and is a past president of the Mormon History Association.
Morgan Davis
February 21 Lecture
D. Morgan Davis is a Research Fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. He holds a Ph.D. (2005) in Arabic and Islamic studies from the University of Utah, an M.A. in history from the University of Texas at Austin, and a B.A. in Near Eastern Studies from Brigham Young University. Dr. Davis was affiliated with the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative (METI) from its inception in 1993, supervising the translation and publication of dual language editions of works from the classical Islamicate world. He served as the project’s director from 2010 until its transfer to Brill in 2017. Dr. Davis works in comparative scripture and comparative theology with a focus on Islam and the Latter-day Saint tradition. He is also the founder and co-editor of the Institute’s Living Faith book series.
Mason Allred
February 28 Lecture
Mason Kamana Allred is an associate professor of communication, media, and culture at Brigham Young University–Hawaii. He earned his MA and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in German literature and culture with a designated emphasis in film and media studies. Prior to joining the faculty of BYU Hawaii, he was a Historian and Editor with the Joseph Smith Papers project in the Church History Department. He is the author of Weimar Cinema, Embodiment, and Historicity (Routledge 2017), Seeing Things: Technologies of Vision and the Making of Mormonism (University of North Carolina Press, 2023), and most recently, Seeing for the Maxwell Institute series, Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants (Maxwell Institute and Deseret Book, 2024). His interdisciplinary work has also appeared in venues such as JAAR, Jewish Studies Quarterly, Material Religion, and Film History.
Ben Lomu
March 7 Lecture
Ben Lomu is a religious educator for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has been teaching seminary and institute for 20 years, and is currently an institute instructor at the Utah Valley Institute. He is also an actor and host of BYUtv’s “Come Follow Up”. He was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Mesa Arizona. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah studying sociology and criminology and earned a master’s degree from the University of Phoenix in education. He and his wife, Michelle, have been married for 21 years and are raising four children.
Kristian Heal
March 14 Lecture
Kristian Heal is a Senior Research Fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. His research focuses on the reception of the Hebrew Bible in early Christian literature and worship. He took a BA in Jewish History from University College London, an MSt in Syriac studies from the University of Oxford, and a PhD in Theology from the University of Birmingham. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Heal was the Associate Director of the Maxwell Institute (2017-2018), the Director of BYU’s Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts (2004-2016), and the editor of BYU’s Eastern Christian Texts Series (2002-2018). Dr. Heal is the author or editor of nine book, most recently Genesis 37 and 39 in the Early Syriac Tradition (Brill, 2023), and Narsai: The Homilies. Volume 1, which he edited with Aaron Butts and Robert Kitchen (Peeters, 2024).
Rachael Givens Johnson
March 28 Lecture
Dr. Rachael Givens Johnson is an assistant professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at Brigham Young University. She received her Ph.D in history from the University of Virginia, focusing on themes of devotion and embodiment in transatlantic cultural history, particularly peninsular and viceregal Spain, in the 16th-19th centuries. From 2022-2024, Dr. Johnson was a postdoctoral fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, and since 2021 she has also served as an associate editor for Wayfare Magazine. Her interdisciplinary work on religion in the Spanish Enlightenment has appeared in Dieciocho, Eighteenth-Century Studies, and Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies.
Adam Miller
April 4 Lecture
Adam Miller is a professor of philosophy at Collin College in McKinney, Texas. He earned a BA in Comparative Literature from Brigham Young University and an MA and PhD in Philosophy from Villanova University. He serves as the current director of the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar. Dr. Miller is the author and editor of many books in Philosophy and Latter-day Saint theology, including most recently, Mormon: A Brief Theological Introduction (Maxwell Institute, 2021), Original Grace (Deseret Book, 2022), The Christ Child (Deseret Book, 2024), and with Rosalynde Welch, Seven Gospels: The Many Lives of Christ in the Book of Mormon (Deseret Book, 2023) and Seven Visions: Images of Christ in the Doctrine and Covenants (Deseret Book, 2024).
Rosalynde Welch
April 11 Lecture
Rosalynde Frandsen Welch is Associate Director and a Research Fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. Her research focuses on Latter-day Saint scripture, theology, and literature. She holds a PhD in early modern English literature from the University of California, San Diego, and a BA in English from Brigham Young University. She is the author of Ether: a brief theological introduction (Maxwell Institute, 2020), and with Adam Miller, Seven Gospels: The Many Lives of Christ in the Book of Mormon (Deseret Book, 2023) and Seven Visions: Images of Christ in the Doctrine and Covenants (Deseret Book, 2024). Rosalynde is the general editor of the Maxwell Institute's series Themes in the Doctrine and Covenants and the host of the Maxwell Institute Podcast.