Winter 2026 Wonder of Scripture

Lisa DeLong examines creation as both cosmic act and everyday practice. Drawing on scripture (notably the Book of Moses), art, and personal practice, she argues that creation is a mutual process: texts and makers change as we return to them. Emphasizing craft, constraint, and the role of beauty, the talk connects divine patterns (golden ratio, temple geometry) with ordinary acts of creativity—painting, music, community-building, even crafting an elegant spreadsheet. The result is a theological and practical vision: human agency, exercised with skill and beauty, participates in God’s work of bringing about immortality and eternal life.

In this Wonder of Scripture lecture, Hebrew Bible scholar Tammi J. Schneider offers a close reading of Genesis 22:2, examining the Binding of Isaac through careful attention to Hebrew language, literary context, and Jewish interpretive tradition.

James Goldberg explores whether AI summaries could ever replace the scriptures—and what we would lose if they did. Addressing themes such as scripture study, imagination, doctrinal interpretation, spiritual encounter, and the difference between extractive and contemplative reading, Goldberg argues that scripture is not meant to be strip-mined for information but encountered as living text.

Matthew Wickman explores what the Book of Mormon can teach us about divine silence—the moments when God seems absent, unanswered, or wordless. Drawing from literary theory, theology, and careful personal scripture study, Wickman suggests that silence in the Book of Mormon is not a void but a tutor. Rather than signaling abandonment, divine silence often becomes a sacred space where God refines, strengthens, and attunes His people.

Drawing from 2 Corinthians 5:17–18, Ethan Busby explores Paul’s powerful declaration that those who are “in Christ” are made new—and are entrusted with a sacred responsibility: the ministry of reconciliation. In a world marked by division, conflict, extremism, and uncertainty, what does that calling actually require of us? Through scriptural reflections on Jacob and Esau, Absalom and David, and Jonah, this talk examines what reconciliation looks like in real, messy, human relationships

In this Wonder of Scripture presentation, Matthew Bowman explores how biblical and Book of Mormon genealogies reveal a deeper way to understand religion—not as a checklist of human actions, but as a long arc of God’s continual work in the world. Through the stories of Abraham in Genesis and the record keepers in Omni, Bowman shows how scripture reframes history around God’s initiating, renewing power, even in moments of decay, barrenness, and spiritual paralysis. Genealogies zoom us out beyond individual choices to see God bending history toward rebirth and covenantal promise. Bowman invites listeners to imagine the possibility of renewal, to trust in revelation, and to believe that God can interrupt stasis with unexpected transformation.

What does it mean to live the “ministry of reconciliation”? Drawing from 2 Corinthians 5:17–18, Stephan Taeger explores Paul’s powerful declaration that those who are “in Christ” are made new—and are entrusted with a sacred responsibility: the ministry of reconciliation. In a world marked by division, conflict, extremism, and uncertainty, what does that calling actually require of us?