Creative Obedience—Becoming Vitally Engaged With the Gospel
What is holding you back from being your true, whole, vitally-engaged self in living the gospel?
James T. Summerhays

Combating Atheism: BYU Professor vs. Richard Dawkins
As bestseller lists of late show, atheism is stirring up a keen interest among readers nationwide, but according to this review of a bestseller, atheism is “like orderly minds ruling out of consideration whatever they cannot order.”
By Kimberly Reid

Building Bridges with Mormon Cinema
With audiences still largely polarized by recognizably Mormon subjects, themes, or treatments, filmmakers can alienate or exclude the non-Mormons, or employ enough humor or subtlety to entice them into the audience.
By Terryl L. Givens

Motion Pictures and LDS Cultural Tensions
From lurid potboilers to faith-affirming sagas, movies that are about Mormons or even by Mormons highlight a culture that is characterized by conflicts between actions and expectations.
By Terryl L. Givens

Mormon Cinema and the Paradoxes of Mormon Culture
It is only at the present moment that we can see a distinctive Mormon cinema showing signs of burgeoning greatness. And it is perhaps this relatively late development that has enabled Mormon filmmakers the perspective to provide especially provocative insights into the tensions and paradoxes of Mormon cultural identity.
By Terryl L. Givens

The Story in the Walls of the Nauvoo Temple
Many interpret the stars, moons, and suns on the Nauvoo Temple as representing the three degrees of glory and nothing more. If that were so, the sunstones would be the highest, acting as emblems of the highest kingdom, the celestial. But at Nauvoo, the stars are the highest.
James T. Summerhays

The Universal Story: Linking God's Epic with Heroes and Fantasy
Why do the stories of fantasy and heroes ring so true to our hearts?  The answer may surprise you.
James T. Summerhays

The Cosmic Mind:  The Blueprint of Our Potential
Here it is one — more piece of evidence that helps answer what should be considered the most crucial question of the age: Is the human family the literal offspring of God, or not? If we are ultimately children of God, then we can grow up to become like him.
James T. Summerhays

Ancient Prophets of Genius
Moses and Abraham became geniuses in the sciences. Usually we connect visions with the calling of a prophet, or the bestowal of a strictly spiritual knowledge. Yet it is apparent that in vision Moses and Abraham were also being immersed in such things as astronomy and atomic processes.
By James T. Summerhays

Willie Handcart Chronology Now Available
The year 2006 marks the sesquicentennial of the Martin and Willie Handcart Company treks to the Great Salt Lake Valley, and BYU Studies has produced a day-by-day web chronology of the trek.
By Kelsey Lambert

Our Responsive Redeemer
A pivotal event in 3 Nephi shows that God is a person with real feelings, and he has authentic, natural reactions according to his children’s faith and pleadings.
By James T. Summerhays

Wilford Woodruff: Man of Many Visions
Some Latter-day Saints might be astonished to realize that endowments for the dead were not instituted until Wilford Woodruff was directed to implement the new practice in the St. George Temple. This took place more than 30 years after the death of Joseph Smith.
By James T. Summerhays

Turning Freud Upside Down
Part I: Spiritual Foundations for Counseling
Most people seem to feel that if a counselor shares their religious beliefs, the counseling experience will be safe for them. This may be a dangerous assumption.
By Aaron P. Jackson and Lane Fischer

Fainting, Flopping, and the Joy of Heaven
The scriptural example is almost humorous. We think of joy as a smile on our face and a general sense of well-being, but when God unleashes his joy upon them, they are flopping to the earth as if they are dead.
By James T. Summerhays

The Visionary World of Joseph Smith
Writings of visionary experiences dot 19th century America, but only Joseph Smith emerged as a leader of a major religion.
 by Richard Lyman Bushman

Jesus as Master and Rabbi
I have often thought that the vast majority of those who fall away from the Church do so through a lack of understanding, not too much of it. The universal and exalted principles of the gospel never sank deeply into their souls.
By James T. Summerhays

The Miracles of Life
There's not a chasm between normal, functioning human beings and the bums on the street with no job and no life. There's one hair's breadth. Disaster is one step off the sidewalk. It is one migraine away.
By Jane Brady

The 120-Witness Miracle
Think for a moment, what would happen if one, just one, original, authenticated letter surfaced from the time of Christ — say, a letter written by Mary of Magdala that she did indeed see two angels at the tomb of Jesus?
By James T. Summerhays

The Search for the Physical Cause of Jesus Christ’s Death
The quest for the answer to the question of how Jesus died becomes, above all, the medium through which our appreciation for the Lord’s sacrifice is greatly deepened.
By Dr. W. Reid Litchfield

Scriptural Perspectives on How to Survive the Calamities of the Last Days
Just as we do not believe that the creation of the world was the instantaneous beginning of everything, neither do we suppose a Star Wars ending. What we are plainly told is that the phrase End of the World refers expressly to the destruction of the wicked.
By Hugh W. Nibley

Ten Steps to Comprehending Eternity
(O.K., So It’s Not That Easy)
He discovered a remarkable realm where half of a pie is as large as the whole, infinity comes in different sizes, and miracles are mathematically plausible.
By James T. Summerhays

Joseph Smith’s Place in American History
A Joseph Smith for the Twenty-First Century: Part III
What do Joseph Smith and Mormonism mean in American history? What do Joseph Smith and Mormonism reveal about the nature of American culture?
By Richard Bushman

A Joseph Smith for the Twenty-First Century: Part II
A growing body of readers is ready for another depiction of the Prophet. These readers do not want to be caught up in the battles of believers and disbelievers.
By Richard Bushman

A Joseph Smith for the Twenty-First Century: Part I
Over the past hundred years, two issues have shaped writing on Joseph Smith, and as we move into the twenty-first century, it may be worth speculating on how these questions will be addressed in the future. May we expect sharp departures, or will the classic questions be answered in the classic ways? Meridian joins with one of the most-respected scholars on the Prophet Joseph Smith, Dr. Richard Bushman, in publishing this first of a three-part series on the Prophet Joseph.
By Richard Bushman

The Dickens Sledgehammer that Forever Changed Christmas: The Cultural Phenomenon of A Christmas Carol
Christmas wasn't always a massive worldwide phenomenon of merriment and conniviality. It was Charles Dickens who played a key role in changing that.
By James T. Summerhays

“All Hail to Christmas:”
Mormon Pioneer Holiday Celebrations
Even as they struggled for sufficient food and shelter, that first year in the Valley, the Mormon pioneers celebrated Christmas.
By Richard Ian Kimball