Teaching Legacy
Elder Holland Helps Celebrate RSC’s Fortieth, Looks to Future Thomas A. Wayment, Devan Jensen, and Brent R. Nordgren
THOMAS A. WAYMENT (thomas_wayment@byu.edu) IS PUBLICATIONS DIRECTOR, DEVAN JENSEN (devan_jensen@byu.edu) IS EXECUTIVE EDITOR, AND BRENT R. NORDGREN (nordgren@byu.edu) IS PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR AT THE RELIGIOUS STUDIES CENTER.
The Religious Studies Center (RSC) began forty
So why did he establish the RSC, and what does he think
years ago under the direction of Jeffrey R. Holland, then
of it today?
dean of Religious Education at BYU. So it was fitting to have Elder Holland help celebrate the RSC’s fortieth anniversary,
Need for a Publishing Center
speaking at the Hinckley Center on BYU campus on May
In 1974, when Holland was appointed dean of Religious
14. Elder Holland was joined by a large group of prominent
Education, he noticed a kind of hodgepodge of research
dignitaries, authors, and Religious Education faculty.
efforts that hindered productivity. He recalled, “When
In his remarks, Elder Holland reminisced, “At one point in my life I thought my entire professional career would be
I came to the dean’s post I was rather immediately concerned that there was not a recognized center or iden-
with you doing things just like this: working side-by-side
tifiable focal point around which the faculty of Religious
in the classroom on this campus and pursuing wonderful
Education could pool their scholarship and be able to
projects such as those of the Religious Study Center. The
publish distinctly LDS research and writing. Publishing
Lord stepped in to exercise damage control in that regard
was being encouraged more and more throughout the
and has pretty much barred me from the classroom for the
university, but among the Religious Education faculty it
last thirty years or so, but I still consider myself a teacher,
was still a little newer and sometimes threatening idea.
an advocate for Religious Education, and for the faith-
There was a fair amount of feeling that publishing is what
promoting work of the Religious Studies Center.”
other people did at the university and what we did in the Joseph Smith Building was teach.”
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