Hey Cougars, we hope you had a great first day of school so far! Comment below and tell us what you’re looking forward to most about this semester!

Have a great weekend! We're excited to see you on Monday when fall semester starts! Photo by Aubrey Odom on Unsplash

Watch our newest book trailer for “Truth Seeker: The Life of Joseph F. Merrill, Scientist, Educator, and Apostle,” by Casey Paul Griffiths! https://youtu.be/MPOYEmU_FPc Background: Joseph F. Merrill became the first native Utahn to earn a PhD. Working at the University of Utah, he labored to reconcile the secular world with the spiritual world of his youth. In 1912 he helped establish the first Latter-day Saint seminary at Granite High School. As Church commissioner of education, he helped establish the institutes of religion, with a mission to allow college students to reconcile the secular truths learned in university settings with the truths of the gospel. He created the Religion Department at Brigham Young University and encouraged young scholars to produce professional studies of the Latter-day Saint religion. In 1933 Merrill was called as an Apostle, where he continued his work to modernize the Church. In the final years of his life, Merrill continued to work to show that science and religion could be reconciled.

Gaye Strathearn was featured in the newest episode of Y Religion! Check it out by going to https://rsc.byu.edu/media/y-religion.

The RSC’s supplemental reading features the focus of this week’s “Come, Follow Me”: Doctrine and Covenants section 93. “Doctrine and Covenants 93: How and What We Worship,” by Craig James Ostler, is available to read online to aid in your personal and family study this week! Check it out by visiting https://rsc.byu.edu/vol-3-no-2-2002/doctrine-covenants-93-how-what-we-worship.

This week for “Come, Follow Me” the focus is Doctrine and Covenants sections 89–92, which includes the revelation known as the “Word of Wisdom.” Check out our supplementary video resource, “The Word of Wisdom” on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aA-iuGJjuAs

Gaye Strathearn, recently appointed associate dean of Religious Education, is featured in the newest episode of Y Religion! While many commandments are fairly clear, how to “remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” has been debated for millennia. Professor Gaye Strathearn from BYU Religious Education has researched this discussion during the centuries surrounding Jesus’s mortal ministry. This episode explores efforts to navigate the Sabbath day by Israelites in the late second temple period, and how we can learn from them to remember and keep the Sabbath holy today. https://rsc.byu.edu/media/y-religion

Fall semester is about to begin! Be on the lookout for our social media takeover on the @brighamyounguniversity Instagram account in early September!

Education Week has officially begun! Be sure to attend classes by our professors of both Ancient Scripture and Church History and Doctrine! Photo by Douglas Lopez on Unsplash

If you haven’t already, check out our Roundtable Scripture Discussions on the Book of Mormon! Uploaded last year, these discussions provide valuable insight to concepts found within the Book of Mormon. Watch them by going to https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc5yYrpPFm2vyDwtqZKGP-X4728vHZYBf.

Announced earlier this month, major changes in leadership took place in the Religious Studies Center and Religious Education at BYU. Esplin is a professor of church history and doctrine at BYU. Prior to working with BYU Religious Education, he taught for the Church Educational System for nine years. Esplin has a BS in business administration and an MEd and PhD in educational leadership and foundations, focusing his studies on the history of Church academies. His current research examines the history of Latter-day Saint education and the development of Church historic sites. Jared W. Ludlow has taught in Ancient Scripture at BYU since 2006. Ludlow has a bachelor's degree in Near Eastern studies, a master's from the University of California at Berkeley in Biblical Hebrew, and a doctorate in Near Eastern religions from UC-Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union. We congratulate and welcome Scott Esplin, Gaye Strathearn, Tyler Griffin, and Jared Ludlow!

What does it mean that our Savior is both human and divine? This is a question Christianity has wrestled with for centuries, with profound theological implications. In this latest episode, BYU religion’s Dr. Jason Combs insightfully explains four types of beliefs about the nature of Christ that were prevalent in ancient Christianity, why this dialogue was important, and how learning from ancient Christians can help Latter-day Saints to better understand the God we worship. https://rsc.byu.edu/media/y-religion