Perhaps no religion has had a more contentious or complex relationship with American law than Mormonism: from 19th century debates over polygamy to questions of church affiliated states. So how has Mormonism, particularly the Latter-day Saint tradition, negotiated the Western legal tradition within its own belief systems? And what is the Latter-day Saint legal tradition, whether explicit or implicit, that's emerged from these engagements?

These are just a few of the many gripping questions William & Mary Law Schools' Rita Anne Rollins Professor of Law Nathan Oman asks in his 2026 book Living Oracles: Law and the Latter-day Saint Tradition. Professor Oman joins host Nicholas Shrum to kick off the newest season of Scholars & Saints through a comparative analysis and historical engagement of Latter-day Saint legal perspectives. Their conversation explores 19th and 20th century church courts, the evolving view of a divinely inspired U.S. Constitution, religious vs. secular views of marriage, and so much more.

To learn more about Professor Nathan Oman, visit his faculty webpage.

Religious identities have shifted dramatically in the last quarter century. But how, and it what ways? Is religion as we once knew it dying in the U.S.? Or are people finding other ways of expressing the same kinds of needs for affiliation and meaning in different forms? What do people really mean when they say they are spiritual but not religious? Or religious but not affiliated with any traditional communities or institutions?

This panel discussion, held on October 25, 2025, centered around what recent trends might tell us about the future of faith and belonging in American life. Our panel of experts, moderated by Bushman Chair Laurie Maffly-Kipp, explored one of the most communitarian traditions, the Mormon faith, as well as other American religious affiliations and spiritual identities.

Visit our website to learn more.

Panelists

Rosemary Avance is Assistant Professor of Media and Strategic Communications at Oklahoma State University. Her research focuses on the interplay between social dynamics, communication technologies, and identity formation across diverse domains. Avance’s recent book, Mediated Mormons: Shifting Religious Identities in the Digital Age, examines case studies of practicing and former Latter-day Saints to understand how these individuals relate to the church, the internet, and modernity during our media-saturated age.

Matthew Hedstrom is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He specializes in religion and culture in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly examining the intersections of American modernity and Protestant and post-Protestant religious modernity in the United States. Within this field, Professor Hedstrom studies the rise in spirituality among Americans who aren’t tied to particular religious institutions, as explored in his 2012 book The Rise of Liberal Religion: Book Culture and American Spirituality in the Twentieth Century, and his popular undergraduate course: “’Spiritual But Not Religious’: Spirituality in America”.

Jana Riess is an author, editor, and senior columnist for Religion News Service. Her written works have primarily focused on the intersections of American religion with popular culture, ethics, and society. Riess’s most recent book, The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church (Oxford University Press, 2019) discusses the faith practices and institutional distrust of Millennial Mormons. She is currently writing a follow-up book, based on her research with Benjamin Knoll, about the Mormon faith crisis and changing understandings of belonging among Latter-day Saints.

Moderator

Laurie Maffly-Kipp is the Richad Lyman Bushman Chair of Mormon Studies at the University of Virginia. She is a distinguished scholar of American religious history and has authored numerous influential works on Mormonism, religion in the American West, and African American religious history. Over the past few decades, Professor Maffly-Kipp has become an influential interpreter of Latter-day Saint history and participated in shaping the field of Mormon Studies. She is also a former president of the American Society of Church History and the Mormon History Association.

This bonus episode of Scholars & Saints is taken from the Eleventh Annual Joseph Smith Lecture, delivered by author and journalist Jana Riess at Newcomb Hall in Charlottesville, Va on October 24, 2025. Click here for more information about Dr. Riess and her lecture.

Each fall, the University of Virginia's Mormon Studies Program sponsors the Joseph Smith Lecture Series: a public lecture on religion in public life, with particular emphasis on religious liberty and civic leadership. The Lecture is designed to honor the legacies of both Thomas Jefferson and Joseph Smith but is not limited to either the American or Mormon experience. If you like or learn from what you hear, we would appreciate your support of the Joseph Smith Lecture Series Endowment Fund.

On today's bonus episode of Scholars & Saints, host Nicholas Shrum sits down with UVA's Richard Lyman Bushman Chair of Mormon Studies Laurie Maffly-Kipp. The two discuss Professor Maffly-Kipp's academic background and entrance into Mormon Studies, her goals and ongoing initiatives within the program, and what makes UVA such a unique place for the study of Mormonism. If you're looking to learn more about UVA Mormon Studies, and how Mormon Studies programs function at academic institutions and with the broader public, then this episode is for you!

Make sure to visit the UVA Mormon Studies website to learn more about our upcoming events, scholarly resources, library collection, and other announcements. You can also give to support UVA Mormon Studies in our endeavor to promote scholarly research and facilitate better public understanding of all branches of Mormonism.

Latter-day Saint temples and their rituals have been an oft discussed and frequently misunderstood element of Mormon practice. But how can scholars hope to understand Mormon temples when their rituals are exclusive to members, and their liturgies kept secret?

Historian and scientist Jonathan Stapley discusses these questions on today's episode of Scholars & Saints. Drawing on his brand-new book, Holiness to the Lord: Latter-day Saint Temple Worship, Stapley, drawing on newly released and digitized sources, argues that the temple is the place where Latter-day Saints are able to order their bodies, their communities, and their universe. By examining the history of the temple, specific liturgies, and the impact of race and gender prohibitions, Stapley shows how the temple has evolved over time to curate Latter-day Saint cosmologies.

To learn more about Jonathan Stapley and his work, visit his website.

Our 21st century digital age provides countless and unprecedented opportunities for identity development and cultural engagement. But how might these new means of social interaction impact religious institutions and their public image?

On today's episode of Scholars & Saints, host Nicholas Shrum seeks out these answers with the help of Oklahoma State University's Professor of Media and Strategic Communications Rosemary Avance. In her recent book, Mediated Mormons: Shifting Religious Identities in the Digital Age, Avance explores how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints created and negotiated its public image during the "Mormon Moment" of the 2010's. Avance and Shrum discuss the different media focuses during this period, including Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, online discussions around caffeine, the Gospel Topics Essays, and more.

You can learn more about Rosemary Avance, her research, and her academic interests by visiting her faculty page.

200 years later, Joseph Smith, Jr. continues to draw popular and scholarly interest within the American imagination. But how can modern historians navigate diverse and controversial religious perspectives to offer a fair record of such a man's life?

John G. Turner, Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at George Mason University, is the latest historian to undertake such an endeavor in his 2025 biography, Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet (Yale University Press). Dr. Turner sits down with host Nicholas Shrum on today's episode of Scholars and Saints to discuss his methodological approaches to studying Joseph Smith outside of denominational polemics. He also analyzes key moments in Smith's life and the lasting legacies they have left for America's religious and political conscience.

To find out more about Dr. Turner, click here.

In a world where new forms of media have enabled the artistic expression of numerous cultures and experiences, the question must be asked: how do the millions of Latter-day Saints around the globe define themselves artistically?

This question is tackled by many Mormon Studies scholars in the 2024 book, Latter-day Saint Art: A Critical Reader. The book's editors, Mason Allred and Amanda Beardsley, sit down with host Nicholas Shrum for this episode of Scholars & Saints. Together, they discuss the diverse nature of global Latter-day Saint paintings, film, architecture, and other visual media. They also examine the universal themes that arise in this artwork—themes that relate to broader Mormon experiences. While they don't wish to create a canon of Latter-day Saint art, both Allred and Beardsley discuss the impact they hope this book will have as the first critical treatment of Mormon works of art.

Mason Allred is the Associate Professor of Communcation, Media, and Culture at Brigham Young University-Hawaii.

Amanda Beardsley is the Cayleff and Sakai Faculty Scholar in Women's Studies at San Diego State University.