Welcome to the Maxwell Institute podcast. I'm Joseph Stewart. In original grace, Adam S. Miller

proposes an experiment in restoration thinking. What if, instead of implicitly affirming the traditional

logic of original sin, we, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,

emphasize the deeper reality of God's original grace.

What if we broke entirely with the belief that suffering can sometimes be deserved

and claim that suffering can never be deserved?

In exploring these questions, Professor Miller draws on scriptures and the truths of the Restoration,

to reframe Christianity's traditional thinking about grace, justice, and sin,

outlining the logic of original sin against the backdrop of original grace,

and generates fresh insights into how the doctrine of grace relates to justice, creation, forgiveness, and more.

We hope that you enjoy this interview with Professor Miller as much as we enjoyed reading

the book. Please be sure to leave a comment and a five-star rating for us on Apple Podcasts or wherever

you get podcasts and sign up for our newsletter at m.b.b.w slash U.S.U. Thanks and enjoy the

interview with Professor Miller. Adam Miller, welcome back to Maxwell Institute podcast. Thanks for having me. And we are here to discuss your new book from Desiread Book in the Maxwell Institute, Original Grace, an experiment in restoration thinking. And it seems to me that two men really shaped this book in its outline. One of those men was your father. Could you tell us

what he was like? Yeah. My father ended up figuring largely here in the book for me. In some ways,

I've been writing this book for 20 years. In some ways, I was writing writing the book for about 18

months. About six months into writing the book,

my father died. This was June 2020. So I started trying to write about that experience of his

passing as part of the book. And it became clear to me as I finished a draft that was about

40,000 words long, that the book needed to be about

half the length that it was, and that I needed to restructure the book entirely around a backbone

of stories about my father, and that included my own father's voice. My father grew up in the church in Pennsylvania, very small church, branch, Mormon-type experience.

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