James L. Kugel is one of the foremost scholars of the Hebrew Bible of our time. Kugel recently visited BYU’s Neal A. Maxwell Institute to talk about his work and about the relationship between religio

“Be fruitful and multiply.” According to the book of Genesis, these are the first words God speaks to humanity. People have understood these words over the centuries as a commandment to procreate, and

What good is a dead body? How have humans cared for dead bodies through the ages and why do we do it? What do dead bodies tell us about the things we value most and about the things we’re afraid of? A

In some ways it’s been a lonelier than usual summer at the Maxwell Institute. Since it was founded in 2006 we’ve had the privilege of hosting the Summer Seminar on Mormon Culture, a remarkable researc

When the Protestant Reformer John Calvin published his book Institutes of the Christian Religion in the 1500s, he couldn't have anticipated the incredibly different purposes his book would come to ser

What do you know about African American religious history? Julius H. Bailey joins us in this episode to talk about his new overview, Down in the Valley: An Introduction to African American History. Ba

If you surveyed Americans, asking them to identify themselves as: A) Catholic B) Muslim C) Evangelical D) Mormon ...and so on, an increasing number will select the very last option—none of the above

The New York Times Review of Books says Marilynne Robinson “is not like any other writer. She has created a small, rich, and fearless body of work in which religion exists unashamedly, as does doubt,

The post #45— How (Not) to Be Secular, with James K. A. Smith [MIPodcast] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.

Even if you’ve never heard of a Christian movement scholars call “the prosperity gospel,” chances are you know some of its most famous proponents, like Joel Osteen or Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. “The p