This episode delves into the most famous Hindu book of scripture. The Bhagavad Gita relates a conversation between god and human about war and violence, duty and obligation. Millions have looked to the Gita to gain insight into the struggle for self-mastery that we all must wage. Richard H. Davis tells the story from its beginnings in ancient India, through medieval […]

Many Latter-day Saints find it difficult to appreciate the archaic King James language of the New Testament. The gospel writers presented their witnesses to an ancient audience whose customs are unfamiliar to readers today. Biblical scholarship has come a long way in clarifying cultural and historical backgrounds of scripture but most Mormons haven’t taken advantage […]

The Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century. The scrolls include the oldest biblical manuscripts ever found. Most intriguingly, they date from the crucial transitional period when Christianity began to emerge from Judaism. They’ve been the focus of rigorous debate and research ever since they came back from […]

“Oh, that my words were written down! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book! O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock forever!” (Job 19:23-24) Having indeed been written down, Job’s words are found in one of the most fascinating books in the Bible and in world […]

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” It’s one of the most easily recognizable opening lines from any literary work, the Book of Genesis, a book that has been interpreted in countless ways over the thousands of years of its existence. In this episode I speak about it with an expert on […]

Dr. Peter Enns just released a brand new book called The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It. Enns wants the Bible to be interpreted for what it actually seems to be [...]

Does academic study of the Bible undermine its value or diminish the religious messages it contains? In 2012, three scholars—a Jew, a Protestant, and a Catholic—came together at the intersection of their academic work on the Bible and their religious faith to discuss that very question. Their outstanding book The Bible and the Believer seeks to demonstrate […]

Miranda Wilcox and John Young recently published one of the most fascinating books ever compiled on the subject of Mormon studies. It's called Standing Apart. In the book, a group of Latter-day Saint scholars examine Mormonism's "Great Apostasy" narrative.

Although the Maxwell Institute focuses its attention primarily on religious texts of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, this episode examines a religious text from an eastern tradition (the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali) in order get a better understanding of the nature of religious texts in general.

What's it like to participate in the Summer Seminar on Mormon Culture? Six participants from this year's seminar answer that question in this episode of the Maxwell Institute Podcast.