How can individuals approach dating with intentionality and long-term purpose? In this episode, Dr. Brian Willoughby and Dr. Barbara Morgan Gardner discuss how to prepare for marriage, overcome fear in dating, and practical skills for marriage.

How does "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" serve as a divine guide for understanding family life? In this episode, Dr. Michael Goodman and Dr. Jenet Erickson unpack the history and doctrine behind the family proclamation, revealing how it offers a powerful blueprint for creating resilient, eternal families.

How is the family changing, and what does that mean for society and faith today? In this episode, Dr. Justin Dyer and Jennifer Thatcher explore trends and challenges in family life and consider sources of hope for the future.

Y Religion Presents: The Eternal Family is a limited-series podcast for summer 2026 that explores the doctrine, challenges, and lived realities of family life in today's world. Across thirteen episodes, leading scholars and teachers examine topics including the changing nature of families, the divine framework outlined in The Family: A Proclamation to the World, preparing for and strengthening marriage, effective parenting, and the sacred roles of mothers and fathers. The series also addresses timely issues such as gender, faith, digital culture, and supporting loved ones through hardship. Together, these conversations offer research-based insights and gospel-centered principles to help individuals and families build resilient, Christ-centered homes.

How does God's love keep showing up for us, even when we struggle? In this episode Professor Aaron Schade reframes the book of Judges as more than a collection of heroic stories. Instead, he describes it as a sobering account of spiritual decline, broken covenants, and the consequences of living according to "what is right in our own eyes."

Professor Schade explores the recurring cycle found in Judges: ancient Israel turns away from God, experiences suffering, cries out for relief, and is delivered only to fall again. Rather than celebrating the judges as flawless leaders, he highlights their imperfections and the deeper message of the text as a lament over moral confusion and a society unraveling without covenant guidance. Further, Professor Schade explains that at the center of the book of Judges is the example of God's steadfast, unwavering love. Even as His people struggle to truly repent, He continues to reach out, deliver, and invite them back into a relationship with Him.

This episode invites us to wrestle with difficult questions about agency, obedience, and discipleship while discovering the powerful truth that God's love persists. Even in the midst of our failures, God's love is always calling us back to Him.

Publications:

• "Broken laws as 'Every Man Did That Which Was Right in His Own Eyes,'" in From Wilderness to Monarchy: The Old Testament Through the Lens of the Restoration, Religious Studies Center (2025)
• From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament Through the Lens of the Restoration, Religious Studies Center (2021)
• The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Day, Religious Studies Center (2021)
• "'Many Plain and Precious Things': Using the Joseph Smith Translation in Teaching the Old Testament," Religious Educator 26.3, Religious Studies Center (2025)
• Phoenician Inscriptions (Writings From the Ancient World, Number 45), with Robert D. Homstedt and Philip Schmitz, Society of Biblical Literature (2026)
• "Sacred Center: The Iron Age Temple at Biblical Ataroth," Biblical Archaeology Review, Biblical Archaeology Society (2026, forthcoming)

Click here to learn more about Aaron Schade

What do we make of times in scripture where violence occurs, especially when the destruction comes because of God's commands? In this episode, Professor David M. Calabro discusses his article "'Thou Shalt Utterly Destroy': Understanding the Biblical Ḥērem", which grapples with the troubling and often misunderstood concept of ḥērem—the ritualized devotion of people, cities, and goods to God that appears in the conquest narratives of Deuteronomy and Joshua.

Calabro explains that while ḥērem is frequently read today as indiscriminate violence or genocide, its ancient meaning is far more complex. Rooted linguistically in ideas of holiness and consecration, ḥērem reflects an ancient Near Eastern way of framing warfare in theological, often hyperbolic terms. By placing Israel's scriptures alongside archaeological evidence, inscriptions from neighboring cultures, and restored gospel truths, the episode shows how biblical language of total destruction functioned within a shared cultural hyperbolic idiom, and that ḥērem is not ultimately about ethnicity or nationality, but about covenant loyalty, repentance, and one's response to God.

Rather than resolving all moral and theological questions, Calabro's work invites listeners to read these texts with greater historical awareness, humility, and a willingness to work with God to understand His ways.

Publications:

• "Thou Shalt Utterly Destroy" : Understanding the Biblical Ḥērem in From Wilderness to Monarchy (Religious Studies Center, 2025)
• "Behold Our God Is with Us": Realism and Divine Focus in Mormon's War Narratives in This Great and Lasting War (Religious Studies Center, 2025)
• A Third Look at the Lord's Hand "Stretched Out Still" (Isaiah 2–14) in Tender Mercies and Loving-Kindness (Religious Studies Center, 2025)
• The Arms of His Love: Gesture and Meaning in the Book of Mormon in In the Eyes of the Ancients (Religious Studies Center, 2026)

Click here to learn more about David Calabro

How can we better incorporate prophetic messages in our lives, while also using them to bless the lives of those we love? In this episode, Scott C. Esplin, dean of Religious Education at BYU, discusses his article "Department and Individual Efforts to Amplify Prophetic Messages," coauthored with Brad Streeter, Rory Bigelow, Aaron Shumway, and David Peck. Drawing on a panel presentation from the 2024 Church Educational System Religious Educators Conference, Dean Esplin explores how religious educators can more faithfully emphasize and transmit the teachings of living prophets. Responding to counsel from Elder Clark G. Gilbert, the panel framed gospel teaching through the metaphor of an amplifier, namely prophetic messages serve as the input, educators function as the amplifier, and students receive the output. Further, Dean Esplin explains that prophets teach with clarity, repetition, and inspired emphasis, centering their messages on Jesus Christ, covenant belonging, and revealed priorities for our time. Ultimately, gospel teachers succeed when they faithfully proclaim the Lord's words and invite learners, through the Spirit, to hear and act.

Publications:

• "Department and Individual Efforts to Amplify Prophetic Messages," with Brad Streeter, Rory Bigelow, Aaron Shumway, and David Peck, Religious Educator, 25.3 (2024)
• Raising the Standard of Truth: Exploring the History and Teachings of the Early Restoration, Religious Studies Center (2020)
• The Voice of My Servants: Apostolic Messages on Teaching, Learning, and Scripture, Religious Studies Center (2010)
• Elder Clark G. Gilbert, "A Prophet in the Land: Current Prophetic Emphases to Young Adults," Seminaries and Institutes Annual Broadcast (2023)
• Elder Clark G. Gilbert, "Speak, Lord; for They Servant Heareth," Seminaries and Institutes Annual Broadcast (2024)

Click here to learn more about Scott Esplin

What did Jesus actually look like, and does it matter? In this episode, professor of ancient scripture Daniel Becerra discusses his new book Picturing Christ, co‑authored with Jennifer Champoux, Mark D. Ellison, and Matthew J. Grey. The book traces how Christians, Latter-day Saints and others, have imagined and portrayed Jesus across two millennia of art and what these evolving images reveal about a shared desire to understand the divine through faith and culture.

Becerra explains that while what Jesus did matters more than how He looked, the way we picture Him still shapes how we relate to God and understand the scriptures. He dives into how assumptions formed by analyzing familiar artwork can influence our spiritual interpretation in subtle ways. The conversation also highlights what archaeology and historical research can teach us about Jesus's real-world context. Insights from excavations, early Christian artifacts, and material culture help ground scriptural stories in historical reality, enriching the way listeners imagine scenese from the New Testament.

Through Picturing Christ, Becerra et al. invites listeners to see the Savior through a broader historical and artistic lens by opening fresh perspectives on the scriptures and deeping our discipleship.

Publications:

• Picturing Christ: Understanding Depictions of Jesus in History and Art, co-authored with Jennifer Champoux, Mark D. Ellison, and Matthew J. Grey, Deseret Book (2026)
• 3rd, 4th Nephi: The Book of Mormon: Brief Theological Introductions 9, The Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship (2021)
• Book of Mormon Studies: An Introduction and Guide, co-authored with Amy Easton, Nicholas J. Frederick, and Joseph M. Spencer, Religious Studies Center (2022)
• Highlighted artwork:
• Jesus and the disciples at the Last Supper, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
• Making Space for Us, Michelle Franzoni Thorley
• Early Morning with the Savior, Sopheap Nhem
• Homeless Jesus, Timothy P. Schmalz
• The Christ of the Breadlines, Fritz Eichenberg
• Last Supper Sculpture, National Museum of African American History & Culture

Click here to learn more about Daniel Becerra

How can sacred art help us feel closer to the Savior and more fully understand his Atonement? In this episode, professor of ancient scripture John Hilton III discusses his new book Behold the Lamb: A Visual Witness of the Savior's Final Hours, created with Anthony Sweat and J. Kirk Richards. The book gathers contemporary Latter-day Saint artwork depicting the final twelve hours of Christ's mortal life and invites deeper reflection on each piece through artist insights, artistic commentary, and cultural context.

Professor Hilton explores why Latter-day Saints often favor images of Gethsemane and the Resurrection over those of the Crucifixion, how scripture emphasizes Christ's death as central to His Atonement, and how sacred art can help us "behold the Lamb of God…[who] was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world" (1 Nephi 11: 32–33) with greater devotion. This episode offers a meaningful way to enrich your Easter season and deepen your discipleship.

Publications:

• Behold the Lamb: A Visual Witness of the Savior's Final Hours, co-authored with Anthony Sweat and J. Kirk Richards, Religious Studies Center (2026)
• Considering the Cross: How Calvary Connects Us with Christ, Deseret Books (2021)
• "The Loving Christ," in The Power of Christ's Deliverence, Religious Studies Center (2022)
• Highlighted artwork:
• A Place Called Gethsemane, Anthony Sweat
• Arms of Mercy, Anthony Sweat
• Judged of the World, Emilie Buck Lewis
• King of the Jews, Tyler Swain
• Advocate, Chad Winks
• Christ's Cross, Joseph Chu
• And Israel's Daughters Wept Around, Rose Datoc Dall
• Finisher of Our Faith, Eva Koleva Timothy
• How Beautiful upon the Mountain…, Maureen Merrell
• View His Death, Anthony Sweat
• Spear in His Side, J. Kirk Richards
• Descent From The Cross, Brian Kershisnik
• Held, Kristin Alley Carver
• At Birth and Death, Esther Candari
• Nicodemus in the Tomb, Lester Yocum

Click here to learn more about John Hilton III, here to learn more about Anthony Sweat, and here to learn more about J. Kirk Richards

In June 2025, President D. Todd Christofferson gave a landmark address to Religious Educators titled "Lifelong Disciples of Jesus Christ." In this bonus episode, John Hilton visits with BYU Religious Education professors Jenet Erickson, Matthew Richardson, and Philip Allred to unpack its implications for teaching and discipleship.

Their conversation centers on President Christofferson's invitation to highlight the vital role of agency in becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. The panel members explore concrete practices to help students take personal ownership in their learning. They also discuss how to move beyond information transfer and instead focus on helping students deepen their connection with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through active engagement and the guiding influence of the Holy Ghost.

Publication:

• "Lifelong Disciples of Jesus Christ," CES Religious Educators Conference, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (2025)

Click here to learn more about the upcoming 2026 CES Religious Educators Conference