Think clearly. Act well. Appreciate life.
We sometimes playfully label things we love – a great movie, a sporting event, a delectable meal – “religious experiences.” But today’s guest, Professor Michael D. Hurley of Cambridge University, says that some well-known English authors sought earnestly to create precisely that kind of experience, a religious experience, through their poetry. Professor Hurley teaches at …
How do we experience God in a time of crisis? Which may be to ask, how do we experience God? How do we experience a disruption of our sense of identity and purpose that transforms us and calls us to a new way of life? Our guest on this episode of the Faith and Imagination …
Feelings of self-transcendence, of connectedness to God, others, and the world, are widely seen as a principal feature of spiritual well-being. So when pandemic conditions shut us in and, to a degree, cut us off from our normal routines of living, this can lead to psychological and even spiritual depression. David Perrin is a professor of …
The novel has long been celebrated as an art form that captures the complexity of human life, often by portraying the human condition in the density of its everyday circumstances. But today’s guest, Christina Bieber Lake, sees the novel as an expressly theological exercise. Dr. Lake, the Clyde S. Kilby Professor of English at Wheaton …
Recently, I became aware of, and joined, a new network of scholars called the SOLAR Network, S-O-L-A-R, for Scholars of Literature and Religion. And this network got me thinking about a range of networks, or interactions, cutting across the worlds of faith and intellect: literature and religion, universities and their communities, theology and practice, and …
Postsecular thought refutes an assumption that so many of us take for granted, namely, that we live in a secular age. But what does it mean to be postsecular? Does it mean that we are no longer secular beings? Does it mean that we’re now living in a different era? Did a truly post secular …
Hello listeners, we wanted to let you all know of a new podcast series from the Center coming this Monday, January 25th 2021, called “Faith and Imagination.” This new podcast series will feature interviews between Dr. Matthew Wickman, founding director of the BYU Humanities Center, and various scholars and others who address the cross sections …
Intersections between areas of scholarly inquiry and areas of creative expression are both fraught with complexity and ripe with opportunity. Where and how these spheres of academic, intellectual and creative work inform each other is often unique to the individual performing that work. But what happens when these two areas—the academic and artistic—also engage the …
Poetry represents perhaps the most elegant use of language, the most delicate expression of the wide range of moods and feelings that make us most deeply human. For that reason, poetry can move us to think differently, behave differently, even sometimes believe differently. In this episode, we spoke with David Marno, Associate Professor of English …
What is the role of religious universities like BYU? How should they resemble or differ from secular universities, and has their role evolved in the past few decades? Or will it? Our guest on this episode of the BYU Humanities Center Podcast is John Tanner, former Academic Vice President of BYU and, most recently, President …
