Skip to main content
Religious Studies Center
Religious Education
Home About Us Publications Conferences My Gospel Study Videos & Podcasts
  Site Search
Sign In Sign Out

Religious Educator Vol. 22 No. 1 · 2021

Go to Religious Educators
Photo of Journal Cover
Subscribe

Table of Contents

Subscribe to the Religious Educator to read articles in this issue online.
  • Adopting and Adapting in Our Teaching
    Editor's Note
    Scott C. Esplin, Editor in Chief
  • The Process and Power of Hope
    Kevin J. Worthen
  • Entrenching a Fundamental
    Use of the First Vision in General Conference
    Ryan S. Gardner
  • Accomplishing the Will of the Father
    A Historical and Theological Examination of Doctrine and Covenants 19
    Ryan H. Sharp and Aaron Mark Coombs
  • Raised unto Eternal Life
    The Principle of Ascension in the Revelations of the Restoration
    William Perez
  • Teachings of Church Leaders on Christ's Final Seven Statements
    John Hilton III, Megan Cutler, and Emily K. Hyde
  • "Thou Wast Chosen Before Thou Wast Born"
    An Egyptian Context for the Election of Abraham
    Stephen O. Smoot
  • The Book of Mormon
    A Powerful Model for Distance Learning
    Adam R. Jardine
  • Innovating Institute
    Ryan J Wessel
  • The Haifa, Israel, Missionary Graves and the BYU Jerusalem Center
    Kent P. Jackson
  • Scripture Note
    Alma's and Helaman's Priestly Blessings, Jesus's Divine Acts in 3 Nephi 19:25, 30
    Matthew L. Bowen

Adopting and Adapting in Our Teaching

Editor's Note

Scott C. Esplin, Editor in Chief

“We first adopt, then we adapt,” President Dallin H. Oaks once observed when answering a question about the balance in pursuing a prepared lesson and following a prompting to change from what may have been planned. “If we are thoroughly grounded in the prescribed lesson that we are to give, then we can follow the Spirit to adapt it.”[1]

Pedagogically, countless teaching plans have had to adapt over the past many months. The Covid-19 pandemic, with its associated shift to remote instruction in teaching settings worldwide, has forced religious educators to evaluate effective ways to continue to teach students the doctrines and principles of the gospel. This pressure to adapt has made President Oaks’s comments all the more relevant. He continued, “There is a temptation, when we speak about this flexibility, to start off by adapting rather than adopting. It’s a balance. It’s a continual challenge. But the approach of adopting first and then adapting is a good way to stay on sound ground.”[2]

This issue of the Religious Educator aims to help readers more fully adopt the message of the Restoration we will be studying and teaching this year. Articles seek to deepen understanding of the First Vision as taught in general conference, the Atonement of Jesus Christ as discussed in Doctrine and Covenants 19, and ascension as taught across scripture. Other articles address practical matters of adapting teaching to the needs of students and the challenges of a pandemic weary world. President Kevin J Worthen of Brigham Young University leads this issue, examining the process and power of hope in our lives, while a subsequent article explores how the Book of Mormon models effective distance learning.

I pray this issue helps us all more fully adopt the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ while adapting our teaching in Spirit-directed ways to serve those in our charge.

Scott C. Esplin

Editor

---

[1] “A Panel Discussion with Elder Dallin H. Oaks” (Seminaries and Institutes of Religion satellite broadcast, 7 August 2012).

[2] “A Panel Discussion with Elder Dallin H. Oaks.”

Continue reading ...
Contact

185 Heber J. Grant Building
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
801-422-6975

Send Us a Message

Helpful Links

Religious Education

BYU Studies

Maxwell Institute

Articulos en español

Artigos em português

Connect with Us Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Subscribe to Our Newsletter