Maxwell Institute Podcast #202: Book of Mormon Ethics, featuring Dr. Courtney Campbell
Maxwell Institute Podcast
Maxwell Institute Podcast
4.7 • 809 Ratings
🗓️ 12 March 2026
⏱️ 56 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
What if your daily scripture study is actually ethical training? In this episode Rosalynde Welch sits down with editor and scholar Dr. Courtney Campbell to unpack Moral Visions: Ethics and the Book of Mormon (edited with Kelly Sorensen). They take the Book of Mormon seriously as an ethical text: not just a list of dos and don’ts, but a set of moral visions that shape who we are, how we live together, and what kind of communities we build.
Campbell and Welch walk through three big moves in the book: how the Book of Mormon teaches (the “scene of instruction”), what it says about everyday ethics (from clothing and conspicuous consumption to prosperity), and why those moral teachings matter — prophecy as moral memory and social criticism aimed at creating flourishing, covenantal communities.
What you’ll take away:
- A fresh lens for reading the Book of Mormon: ethics as vision, not only rule-following.
- How narrative, memory, and prophecy function as tools for communal moral formation.
- Concrete ethical concerns the book raises for the 21st century: social cohesion, economic justice, and peacemaking.
- A new appreciation for why the Book of Mormon’s stories still matter—because they aim to shape communities that last.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From Brigham Young University's Maxwell Institute, this is the Maxwell Institute podcast, Faith, Illuminating, Scholarship. |
| 0:11.8 | I'm Rosalind Welch. Today I have for you the fourth and final in a series of interviews introducing the Maxwell Institute's four research initiatives. Over the last few |
| 0:23.8 | months, I've discussed our Bible initiative with Dr. Christian Heal, our discipleship initiative |
| 0:29.5 | with Dr. Miranda Wilcox, and our interfaith initiative with Dr. Andy Reed. Today I'm talking |
| 0:36.6 | about a fourth research initiative, the Book of Mormon, with Dr. Andy Reid. Today I'm talking about a fourth research initiative, The Book of Mormon, |
| 0:40.3 | with Dr. Courtney Campbell. Courtney is the co-editor of a new book titled Moral Visions, Ethics, and the Book of Mormon. |
| 0:49.3 | The book is a collection of academic essays by scholars from a variety of disciplines, each reflecting |
| 0:56.1 | on some aspect of the Book of Mormon's answer to the key question of ethics. How should I live? |
| 1:04.9 | There's never been a book-length academic study of Book of Mormon ethics, so this volume fills a whole in the existing scholarship, |
| 1:12.9 | and I found it to be packed with stimulating insights, whether you approach the Book of Mormon |
| 1:18.2 | as a scripture reader or a scholar. The book was published by the University of Illinois Press, |
| 1:25.4 | but it was developed with support from the Laura F. Willis Center |
| 1:29.6 | for Book of Mormon Studies, which is housed here at the Institute. This conversation gives me a chance |
| 1:36.3 | to highlight an aspect of the Institute's work that might be less visible to our listeners. |
| 1:42.8 | Our mission charges us both to fortify Latter-day Saints in their |
| 1:46.9 | testimonies of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and to engage the world of religious ideas. |
| 1:54.6 | We try to build bridges between the academic study of the restoration and the Latter-day Saint community. |
| 2:01.6 | And one of the ways we do that is by supporting academic projects that deserve to find a voice in professional scholarship. |
| 2:10.6 | Our own fellows are our greatest asset in this respect, and they publish widely. |
| 2:15.6 | But we also support other academic projects that fall within our research |
| 2:20.8 | initiatives and that are of value to both saints and scholars. Moral Visions is one of those projects, |
| 2:28.5 | and I enjoyed discussing the book with Dr. Campbell. Courtney is a professor of religion and culture at Oregon State |
... |
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