“Probably the most intellectually enlarging and spiritually strengthening experience of my life”
“I don’t think I can overstate how meaningful this experience has been for me as a scholar, person of faith, and member of the LDS church.”
“An incredible, fundamentally career altering experience. 20 out of 10”
“One of the best things I’ve ever been a part of”
“More than anything else, this seminar provided me with new insights and experiences which strengthened my belief in Christ and my membership in the church.”
“Though I don’t think I have quite the right words to describe all the causes, this workshop has left me with a stronger faith in Christ, particularly in the way that the Atonement of Christ can have real and lasting power to change people for better. As a result, I am committed to find more ways to experience that power in my life.”
“Perhaps the most valuable thing I gained would be hope: hope that the gospel is a path of eternal spiritual and intellectual progression that we must learn how to work through in our individual lives; hope that God wants us to ask questions and seek to integrate all aspects of our lives; hope that my work in the humanities matters and that I do have a vocation to do good through it.”
“I feel hope again. Hope about my membership in the Church. Hope about my future growth and development as a scholar and a writer. Hope about my research. Hope about my profession and discipline.”
“One of the most fulfilling and nourishing experiences I’ve had in an academic classroom.”
About The Endowment
The Taylor and Tamara Woods Humanities and Belief Endowment was created for the purpose of supporting the College of Humanities in its efforts to promote a humanities education that is both intellectually enlarging and spiritually strengthening. It provides valuable and needed resources to assist undergraduate students, aspiring academics in graduate programs, and practicing LDS scholars in the humanities at BYU in their quest to live, think, and publish as believing thinkers and thinking believers.
With immense gratitude and a deep desire to honor the generosity and vision of our donors, the College of Humanities developed the Humanities and Belief Summer Workshop. LDS graduate students in the humanities are brought to BYU for a seminar of intensive readings, discussion, and mentoring with BYU faculty and invited guests from other universities. We investigate scholarship that addresses the challenges of belief in our time and provides pathways through, rather than around, those challenges. The goal is to shore up faith, strengthen connection to a community of believing humanists and role models, and study theories, methodologies, and ideas that are often neglected in graduate programs but that offer powerful tools for the believing humanist.
In addition, this endowment is used to improve pedagogical approaches as well as scholarly endeavors so that all our faculty and students are in a better position to contribute and shape respective fields as scholars of faith. As we research and understand contemporary paradigms of study in the humanities we seek to identify and expand the common ground between the humanities and belief.
