What is the Maxwell Institute exactly? I’m excited to introduce Dr. Christopher Blythe of the Maxwell Institute. We’ll get acquainted with him, learn more about the Maxwell Institute.
Christopher: I am the author of Terrible Revolution: Latter-day Saints and the American Apocalypse that just came out. I’m also a research associate at the Maxwell Institute here.
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GT: Do you do any teaching at BYU here, or…
Christopher: No, just if I want to. So I taught a class in 2019 for the Religion Department–what did they call it? [It was] sort of, Church History/Doctrine and Covenants merged together, I forget the name. [It was] Gospel Foundations. So I like teaching, but I also love having this time to write. So this is a great spot to research and write and they hook you up with great student researchers to help you with your projects and fund you to go visit different sites and different archives.
GT: Sounds like a dream job!
Christopher: It is a dream job, there’s no question.
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GT: So can we think of this as kind of a think tank? We have political think tanks. Is this a religious think tank?
Christopher: Yes. I think that’s probably right. We all have our own different projects. Then we meet together, brainstorm together on–read each other’s writings. Sometimes, there’s a project that comes from above that those that actually work here might be part of or might not be. So, right now, brief theological introductions to the Book of Mormon have been the big thing. One of us wrote a volume for it. These are these wonderful little 30,000 word books, each on a different book in the Book of Mormon.
