Terryl L. Givens, “The Doors of Faith” (Lecture 1 of 4)
Channel: Maxwell Institute
Date: 2019-10-09

Maxwell Institute Scholar Lecture—September 23, 2019
04:57—Lecture begins

"The Doors of Faith" is part one of a four-part lecture series entitled "The Choice to Believe," by Dr. Terryl L. Givens of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. 

Philosophers and theologians through the ages have recognized that in life’s greatest transactions, human reason comes up short in detecting sufficient grounds for decision making. If belief is to have any moral value whatsoever, then the human will must be involved in the choice to believe. Otherwise, belief would be forced rather than a matter of choice. The ambiguity of evidence, the maelstrom of competing voices, the indeterminacy of religious claims is not a defect in the plan: it is the precondition for its effective implementation.

TERRYL L. GIVENS is a Neal A. Maxwell Senior Research Fellow. He formerly held the Jabez A. Bostwick Chair of English and is Professor of Literature and Religion at the University of Richmond. He is the author of many books about Latter-day Saint history and culture, including “Wrestling the Angel: The Foundations of Mormon Thought,” “Feeding the Flock: The Foundations of Mormon Practice,” and “By the Hand of Mormon: The American Scripture That Launched a New World Religion,” each with Oxford University Press. He is also co-author, with Fiona Givens, of “The God Who Weeps,” “The Crucible of Doubt,” and “The Christ Who Heals.”

The series is sponsored by Brigham Young University's Office of the Associate Academic Vice President for Undergraduate Studies and the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, in partnership with:

The Office of the Dean of Students
Office of the International Vice President
Dean of Undergraduate Education
Department of Religious Education
Wheatley Institution
Harold B. Lee Library
Enrollment Services
Center for Teaching and Learning
BYU Continuing Education
David O. McKay School of Education
J. Reuben Clark Law School
College of Physical and Mathematical Science
College of Humanities
College of Life Sciences
College of Engineering
College of Nursing

Lectures in this series include:
09/23—Lecture 1, “The Doors of Faith”
10/21—Lecture 2, “Awful Woundedness” 
11/18—Lecture 3, “Great Plan of Happiness”
12/9—Lecture 4, “Worlds Without End”
See mi.byu.edu for more details.