Meet Rosalynde Frandsen Welch, our new host for the MIPodcast. Rosalynde is the Associate Director of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, where she coordinates faculty engagement and co-leads a special research initiative. 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, published by the Maxwell Institute, as well as numerous articles, book chapters and reviews on Latter-day Saint thought.
In this episode, Rosalynde introduces The Questions We Should Be Asking, a new season that explores questions that help build faith.
The first full-length episode of the podcast will be posted on March 28, 2023.
MIPodcast #158: Introduction
Rosalynde Welch: Hello, and welcome to the Maxwell Institute Podcast. My name is Rosalynde Welch, and I'm the Associate Director of BYU’s Neal A Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. We're excited to launch a new season of the Maxwell Institute Podcast, which will be hosted by me.
In this new season, we'll continue to focus on the subject that's most important to us at the Institute- the intersection of faith and scholarship. You'll hear new interviews with fascinating scholars who share their journeys of the mind and the heart. The Maxwell Institute Podcast has been an important way for us to reach a wider audience, since it started in 2013. In that time, we've put out almost 200 episodes. For the past year and a half, we've also produced a weekly scripture podcast: Abide. The world of Latter-day Saint scripture podcasts has grown rapidly, and there are now many outstanding resources available to all. So we'll be pausing Abide, with many thanks to all those who worked on it.
Our mission at the Maxwell Institute is to inspire and fortify Latter-day Saints in their testimonies of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. And we pursue that mission with the scholarly tools that we bring to our academic work. As a community of scholars, we're passionate about the religious scholarship we produce. But we're equally committed to reaching thoughtful Latter-day Saints of all personal and professional walks. Including those of you who don't regularly pick up academic books. So we hope this season, to make our podcast even more relevant to your religious life. Faith is deeply personal, of course, but we're convinced that it can be enriched by the insights of scholars. In fact, we believe that insights not only from historians and scripture scholars-but from mathematicians and economists- can illuminate faith, because in the end, all truth belongs to God. And that illumination, it goes both ways. The faith of the Institute's gospel scholars is like a searchlight to identify which scholarly questions are most urgent and most edifying. Our faith also shows us how and where to apply the insights gained through study. At home and at church, in the workplace and in the community, and in our everyday lives where it matters most. We're committed to making all that illumination available to as many saints as we can. Whether or not you're fascinated by gospel scholarship, we can promise that you'll find something relevant to your faith in Christ, your relationship to the scriptures, or your testimony of the church. So that's our renewed vision for the podcast: faith illuminating scholarship, with an emphasis on relevant insights you can apply to your own spiritual life.
But that's not all we have planned. We wanted to give this season a special focus, a theme we'll return to and each episode. We've titled this season of the Maxwell Institute podcast “The Questions We Should Be Asking”. Seeking light from God is the foundation of a spiritual life. But sometimes the questions we ask are too broad, too narrow, or just off base. Here's a little example from my own life. Back when my first baby was born, almost 22 years ago, my world was rocked. I adored this strange and beautiful creature, but she was fussy in the evenings. I'd walk the floors of our little apartment asking myself over and over, “What am I doing wrong?” I scoured parenting books and websites. But as long as I was framing my question as “what am I doing wrong?” I couldn't find answers. Finally, I began to ask a different question. What is my baby responding to? With that question in mind, I was able to focus on her behaviors and responses, and I started to learn strategies for soothing my fussy baby. With the right question, I could start to find answers.
We believe this principle applies to any search for truth, whether in our family life, our professional life, or our religious life, but it takes practice to find the right question. And this is something scholars practice daily. A powerful research question is the foundation of good scholarship. An essay, a book, or a lecture just won't come together if the writer is focusing on the wrong question. So this season, we'll explore with gospel scholars, the questions we should be asking. Better, deeper questions that point us toward truth and faith. President Nelson said, “The power of truth is augmented, if equally yoked with righteousness, or with mercy or with the spirit of love. This concept extends beyond the walls of the university. It applies to our companions, our children at home. When truth is magnified by mercy, or refined by righteousness, it can be converted from a force that can destroy, to a force that can bless.” We firmly believe what President Nelson taught that the mind and the soul are linked in the search for truth. That's why we've given our podcast the tagline, Faith Illuminating Scholarship. Our institute is founded on the idea that the insights of scholarship can illuminate our faith and that the commitments of faith must illuminate our scholarship. We hope you'll join us this season on the Maxwell Institute Podcast.