Episode 847: Dr. Chad Ford, New Book: “Seventy Times Seven: Jesus’s Path to Conflict Transformation”

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 839 Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2025

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My friend Dr. Chad Ford (Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Utah State University, prior director of McKay Center at BYU-Hawaii, expert of conflict resolution, PhD Georgetown University, joins us to talk about his new book published by Deseret Book “Seventy Times Seven: Jesus’s Path to Conflict Transformation”. Amazon reviews mention “one of the best they’ve read about Jesus, how it inspires readers to embrace compassion, encourages reflection and discussion, and practical application”. Chad talks about the “Gospel of Reconciliation” using the teachings and example of Jesus to apply to our lives. In the podcast he talks about principals to reduce tension and increase understand between current Latter-day Saints and former Latter-day Saints—and also to manage political tension within our congregations. Chad also talks about REPAIR (inaugural event in October 2025) bringing together world-class peacemakers to help attendees have better skills to navigate conflict. If you are looking to be a more effective peacemaker and disciple of Christ, I encourage you to listen to this episode, read Chad’s book, and share his work with others. Chad brings his academic training, decades of experience, and insights into Jesus’s teachings to help us all better navigate conflict. I learned so much listening to Chad—and am deeply inspired. Thank you, Chad, for your much needed work in our community. Links: Chad’s weekly newsletter: chadford.substack.com Chad’s new book Seventy Times Seven: amzn.to/439uaY9 Chad’s book on conflict Dangerous Love: amzn.to/4oLGFkQ More information on Repair: waymakers.substack.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome listeners to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love, hosted by Richard Osler.
0:08.0	My guest on today's podcast, I think he's joining me from Logan, Utah, where he teaches,
0:14.6	but I haven't asked him where he actually is right now because he goes all over the whole world.
0:18.1	Is my friend Dr. Chad Ford. Welcome to the podcast, Chad.
0:22.6	It's great to be back on your podcast and great to hear your voice again.
0:27.4	Let me introduce you to Chad if you're not aware of him and what we're going to talk about in this really important podcast.
0:34.5	Chad was on the podcast about five years ago when he was at BYU, a professor there,
0:41.0	and he talked about his book, Dangerous Love, and that's kind of the first time I really
0:45.6	connected with his work, and it's super needed. He's written a more recent book that just came out,
0:51.2	published by Deserate Book. It's called 70 times seven.
0:56.0	Jesus's path to conflict transformation.
1:00.1	Chad could have put the word resolution, but it's a bigger word than just ending conflict
1:06.3	to transformation.
1:07.3	He may talk about the choice of that word, which I'm curious about later in the
1:11.8	podcast. Let me read a little bio just because we do that. He's the associate professor of
1:17.9	religious studies at Utah State University, specializing in intercultural and religious peacekeeping.
1:24.7	He served as the director of Brigham Young University, Hawaii's McKay Center for
1:29.2	intercultural understanding from 2005 to 2021, and is known for a study of conflict resolution
1:36.9	with an emphasis on large group ethnic and religious conflict, as well as his sports journalism
1:43.8	with ESPN.
1:46.1	And then he's an author of a couple books, two that I've mentioned.
1:50.9	He has a BA from Brigham Young University of Hawaii is a master's in conflict analysis
	...

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