Kathleen Flake to give Annual Neal A. Maxwell Lecture
Oct. 21, 2017 | Brigham Young University
Professor Flake will give the Annual Neal A. Maxwell Lecture on Oct. 21, 2017. Her address is entitled “By Study, Even By Religious Studies.”
Religious Studies often finds itself between equal and opposite skepticisms. On the one side are those who think it undermines scholarship through promotion of faith. On the other side are those equally convinced it undermines faith through scholarship. They both seem to agree, however, that the values of the academy and the church are incompatible and that the tools of each threaten the integrity of the other.
This is not a new conflict, but Mormonism’s formal entry into the fray is. In the last few years, professorships of Mormon Studies have been created in state and public research universities. This has led both sides to worry “What are we to make of this?” “What will they make of us?” From personal experience and with admitted loyalties to each side, Flake will consider both questions, emphasizing the benefit of Religious Studies to the faithful who “seek learning, even by study” (D&C 88:118).