Kate Holbrook - Gaining Light through Questioning

Latter-day Saint Women Podcast

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

5 • 670 Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2020

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Not enough people understand … that questions are good. … They can bring light and understanding.” Julie Willis shared this and other insights in her landmark speech at BYU Idaho in July 2014. Join hosts Shalyn Back and Katie Perez along with special guest Kate Holbrook, PhD as they discuss how to ask questions and seek answers. Full Discourse https://www.churchhistorianspress.org/at-the-pulpit/bonus-chapters/bonus-7 In the same talk Julie also shared, "This beautiful picture of Mt. Moran in the Tetons, photographed by my brother John, reflects a fundamental question that helped shape my academic studies. The actual question is immaterial; what’s important is that I left the serenity of the landscape and asked a question. What question would you ask about this scene? It likely depends on your background and interests. An outdoor enthusiast may ask about climbing routes, a botanist may wonder about the effects of glaciation on conifers, an artist might want to know how to best capture the reflections in the lake, and a geologist may ask about the tectonic forces that built the mountains. The variety and depth of questions that can be asked about a simple mountain scene can be as numerous as the people who view it. The ability and desire to ask questions and search for answers is a uniquely human attribute that is vital to the scientific, artistic, and religious advancements of humanity. We start asking questions at a very young age, as any parent of a precocious three-year-old knows. This suggests that we bring a questioning spirit with us to earth, and that learning by asking and seeking is one reason that our Heavenly Parents have given us the gift of mortal life."

Transcript

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0:00.0	Have you ever sat through a Relief Society lesson? Heard an inspirational story about a woman who was
0:05.5	born decades or even centuries before you, then wondered how in the world could her life
0:11.0	possibly be relevant to yours? Well, that's what this podcast is all about. You'll hear parts of some
0:17.0	prominent talks given by women throughout the history of the church. Hopefully, along the way,
0:22.0	you'll be able to see how their experiences can apply to you. Welcome to the Latter-day St.
0:27.2	Women Podcast. I'm your host, Shailen Back, and today I'm here with Kate Holbrook, who is the
0:33.0	manager of women's history in the church history department, and Katie Perez, who's here to share
0:38.1	her thoughts about this discourse that we've all read. So thank you for joining us.
0:43.1	Thanks for having us. The talk that we're going to talk about today is called Gaining Light
0:47.2	Through Questioning by Sister Julie Willis. And it is included in the book at the pulpit,
0:52.7	which is a compilation of discourses given by
0:56.2	women throughout the history of the church. As this is one of the very first podcast episodes,
1:01.9	Kate, we'd love to hear a little more about at the pulpit, what it is, why it's important.
1:07.0	Sure, at the pulpit is a collection of women's discourses from the earliest days of the church up until most recent days of the church to put this book together. My colleague Jenny Reader and I went through and we found every talk we could get our hands on. We were looking through old Relief Society Minute books, old Relief Society magazines, conference reports, area conference reports,
1:29.0	everything we could find to find talks that women had given. And then we looked for those talks
1:34.1	that had real theological analysis in them, that were gripping, that felt important,
1:40.5	those talks that after we read them, we wanted to go post something on Facebook or tweet or just
1:46.7	call our mom, you know, tell them about the talk. So that's how we chose which ones ended up in the
1:51.7	book. Oh, great. And I love that you said that because with this talk, I did call my mom and I did
1:57.4	tell her some things that I got out of it. So that's perfect. Let's talk about Julie Willis.
2:02.1	What's her story?
2:03.5	Julie Willis is a scientist.
	...

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