By Study and by Faith

At the weekly BYU devotionals we often witness what former BYU provost Bruce C. Hafen said at an annual university conference, “BYU creates a fusion of the secular and the sacred into a mountain of truth.”

Frans Johansson’s popular book, The Medici Effect, can give us further insight why such intersections are so valuable:

When you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary new ideas.

A New Category on Your BYU Speeches Web Page

Now you can use our new category “By Study and by Faith” (see D&C 88:118) to explore many devotional speakers who, fusing the the professional with the religious, shows why Brigham Young University is often a place of “extraordinary ideas.”

You can, for example, see such study and faith fusion in agronomy with R. Kent Crookston’s talk on “The Natural Law of Blessings.”

Or for the athletically inclined, the legendary LaVell Edwards introduces his synthesis of faith and athletics like this:

We have all seen picture of Moroni dressed in his armor including the breastplate and helmet. It is a little like a football player dressed in full uniform with all the required pads, shoes, and helmet. They are both dressed for protection from their adversaries.

He then goes on to give some wonderful anecdotal advice.

So we invite you to try out this new section and see the synthesis that comes when speakers blend discipline with discipleship–from art, agronomy, or athletics; to music, math or media; or to philosophy or politics.