This story focuses on two dynamics that came together in an unexpected way to establish and shape the Religious Studies Center (RSC) at BYU: first, the extraordinary man behind the inspiration that led to the organization of the RSC; and second, Jeffrey R. Holland’s continuing fifty-year encouragement and guidance he provided to perpetuate his vision of the RSC and its success, despite his considerable involvement in other extensive endeavors that he deservedly become well known for throughout the world.

An Inspired Beginning

In 1974 thirty-three-year-old Jeffrey R. Holland was appointed to be dean of what is now known as Religious Education (Religious Instruction), making him the youngest dean on BYU campus, a real challenge for someone who had never even been a full-time faculty member at a university. His youthful vision and enthusiasm endeared him to faculty and students alike.[1]

Appointing such a young dean was likely a combination of inspiration and the fact that young Holland had accomplished more than most at such a young age. Some of his notable successes began in high school as a student leader and a varsity athlete at Dixie High School and Dixie College in his native St. George, Utah. Holland received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and religious education, respectively, from Brigham Young University. He obtained a second master’s degree and a PhD in American studies from Yale University.[2]

Not only were his educational achievements impressive, by his thirty-third birthday Holland had served as an institute of religion teacher in Hayward, California, an institute director in Seattle, Washington, a counselor in two stake presidencies, and a bishop.[3]

Laying the Foundation

President Holland recalled his thoughts just after he was appointed dean of Religious Instruction, “When I came to the dean’s post, I was rather immediately concerned that there was not a recognized center or identifiable focal point around which the faculty of religious education could pool their scholarship and be able to publish distinctly LDS research and writing.”[4]

He added,

“I simply realized we have a lot of important things to say by very able people—men and women. But we did not have a lot of opportunities to publish LDS-oriented scholarship.

“We had the Church magazines, but often the chance to publish there was by invitation and on assigned topics. It wouldn’t necessarily have been somebody’s area of interest or research. So we had very limited ways to let out what I thought was an increasingly wonderful and professional profound faculty right, and teach through the printed word and through the publication and get beyond the classroom—go beyond the university.”[5]

Creating a research and publishing center would expand that outreach. “We needed a place—a center, if you wish—for our faculty to write and share their teaching with an ever-widening audience of students, alumni, and Latter-day Saints generally.”[6]

He explained, “So we combined those two elements: an organizational principle, a home for several existing entities, and a place to write and publish good, orthodox studies that would matter to us in Religious Education at BYU. I took that idea to then-President Dallin H. Oaks. He embraced it instantly, and the next thing I knew, it was to the board of trustees, and we had a Religious Studies Center.[7]

Elder Holland added, “In the early going, as the RSC got started, we picked up whatever was available here and there, publishing a wide variety, sometimes even a kind of peculiar variety of things. Today I think interest coupled with demand is refining that, and we will not have either the luxury of or need for publishing peripheral things. First-rate books, profound religious and scholarly essays and insights—that is what’s going to define the center in the years ahead.”[8]

In April 1976, Dean Holland was called to serve as the eleventh Commissioner of the Church Educational System, replacing Neal A. Maxwell. With Holland’s departure, it was determined that Dean Ellis Rasmussen should become the director of the RSC.[9]

This new organization became a place where quality research on religious topics could be published and made available to an anxious—perhaps even hungry—Latter-day Saint audience. In 1977, as Church Commissioner, Holland told the center that he hoped it would bring dialogue with other cultures and religions, leading to greater understanding, brotherhood, and peace.[10]

Elder Holland remembers, “We made our launch by publishing Nibley on the Timely and Timeless [1978] and held the first of what would become an annual symposium. Since that modest beginning, so many significant publications have been sponsored, encouraged, facilitated, and published by the Religious Studies Center. I am genuinely impressed.”[11]

Expanding the Vision

While serving as president of BYU, President Holland proposed that the RSC hold an annual Book of Mormon Symposium.[12] That idea launched an influential annual event and book series.

In a 2015 interview, then-Elder Holland remarked, “No question that our initial view was too modest, too narrow. I see us writing to a wider world more and more in the years ahead as we come out of obscurity and out of darkness.” He went on to say, “We should do a world-class job. I would like this to become known as the scholarly voice of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on matters that would normally be considered as ‘religious studies.’ When people think, ‘Where do I look to see the real heartbeat of intellectual life and academic contribution for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?’ I want them to think BYU, and at BYU, when the issue is religious scholarship, I want them to think of the Religious Studies Center.”[13]

Holland went on to explain how we are “in an era—and will continue to be so from here on in—in which we need the very best contributions and examples from every Latter-day Saint on the team in order to declare the truthfulness of the gospel and see it prevail in a darkened world.”[14]

In his speech given at the fortieth anniversary celebration, Holland said, “We’ve always been at war with the adversary to win the hearts of men and women. But now, more and more, we must be vigilant in the battle for the minds of the human family. Fortunately, what you do at the RSC is focused on both the mind and the heart, which is the divine formula.”[15]

When Robert Millet became the new dean of Religious Education and the director of the RSC in 1991, he stated, “The Religious Studies Center has been established to speak to different audiences, to focus our research and direct our publications toward various groups of people. Secondly, the RSC has a broader responsibility: there is a need for ‘gospel scholarship,’ for research and writing, which lifts the level of understanding and strengthens the commitment of the average member of the Church.” This new vision by Millet inspired him to start a journal in the year 2000, titled The Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel.[16]

Developing the Essential Tools

Several important developments at the RSC over the past fifty years include the following:

• Full- and part-time staff. Since the early days of the RSC, the staff has grown from having only a faculty publications director, with limited resources for identifying and supporting new research, to now having full-time staff, including a publications coordinator, editors, and a production supervisor, as well as part-time editorial and design teams.
• Books. Even though the RSC didn’t publish its first book until 1978, by the end of 2024, it has published nearly 400 books.
• Student employees. Through the years, the RSC has hired many student employees who helped facilitate and realize the vision of the Religious Studies Center. When Elder Holland learned of the positive impact of students, he said,

I am thrilled to see student efforts, student essays, and student products. I would not have been conscious enough at the time to see that would be one of the great things that the RSC would grow into. I am happy that it has. Again, I think that testifies to the vitality of a good idea. If something is good, suddenly it starts to bless more here and bless more there. If you plant a little seed and it grows up into a pretty healthy tree, I guess a lot of people can get under it and enjoy the shade in three or four or five directions.[17]

• Religious Educator. As noted, the RSC began publishing the Religious Educator, an academic journal with a focus on the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, Latter-day Saint scriptures, and Latter-day Saint history. It was first intended to provide gospel teachers with carefully prepared, inspirational, and informative articles that would help assist them in their teaching roles. It has evolved to benefit a much broader range of Latter-day Saints who love the gospel and its teachings.[18] By the end of 2024, there have been seventy-two peer-reviewed Religious Educator journals published.
• Website. In 2008, as the RSC prepared to launch their new website, they also “embarked on a project to put the complete RSC library on its website.” By making nearly all the RSC publication library available online at no charge, the original research efforts of the faculty are given a second life.[19] The RSC website has extended its reach beyond anything that was first imagined. For the year 2024, the website had over 1.85 million active users and 3.6 million page views and was accessed by users from over 212 countries.
• Review magazine. Also in 2008 Richard Holzapfel, the publications director, proposed changing the format of the RSC Newsletter to a full-color magazine to be called the BYU Religious Education Review. This magazine built upon and expanded the earlier efforts to provide information about the RSC’s activities—including highlighting current research initiatives. The Review is like the RSC Newsletter but gives greater voice to Religious Education, including the Departments of Ancient Scripture and Church History and Doctrine, highlighting students, faculty, staff, and administration. When the magazine was launched, it was made available to all full-time BYU faculty at no charge. The number of new subscribers grew rapidly and steadily.[20] By of the end of 2024, thirty-four issues of the Review magazine had been published with well over 11,000 subscribers.
• Deseret Book. Starting in 2009, the RSC and Deseret Book established a copublishing arrangement that would help RSC books reach a much broader audience and help fill an academic niche for Deseret Book in Latter-day Saint scholarship.[21]
• Articles or chapters. The RSC has published over 7,300 articles or chapters, most of which are available for free on the RSC website. These articles are excellent resources for those who want to study a gospel topic or prepare for a lesson.
• Authors. The work of the RSC would not be possible without our authors, who provide the important, relevant, and excellent content that allows the RSC to make such a contribution. As of today, over 1,275 authors have contributed their talent and expertise to produce those 7,300 articles.
• Symposia and conferences. The RSC has also held a wide variety of symposia and conferences over the years (some held annually, with hundreds of attendees). Audiences come to learn from a host of religion scholars, historians, Church leaders, and educators without charge.
• Social media. To extend the reach to additional demographics, including the rising generation, the RSC added a student employee position for media specialists. As a result of this position, a digital newsletter has been developed, reaching over 4,400 subscribers weekly, along with a regular podcast that attracts hundreds of viewers—both aimed at facilitating gospel study among our followers.

Conclusion

In an interview in 2015, Elder Holland commented that he didn’t anticipate how the RSC would develop, but he was grateful “it has taken on the maturity and the dimension that it now has.” He said,

It is very gratifying that it’s forty years old, which is really quite amazing when you think of that. And often, I think the Lord does things with us and through us that we are not aware of at the time. The scripture says, ‘Be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great’ (Doctrine and Covenants 64:33). I think it was a small thing—in a way, almost an incidental thing when we started—but out of small things proceedeth that which is great.[22]

The original vision of the RSC started with then-Dean Holland, who served as an instrument for Religious Education to create additional opportunities for research and publishing at the university level. This single idea with its multiple facets has grown beyond what was originally conceived. More recently, the RSC was combined with the Maxwell Institute and BYU Studies to create Brigham Young University Religious Publications.

Because of the seeds planted fifty years ago by President Holland, and the many people who have contributed their time and talent over the years, the RSC has flourished and touched the lives of millions of people.

Reflecting on his time at the RSC, Richard Holzapfel said,

One day I was sitting in my office in the Heber Grant Building and thought, ‘I don’t know who was here twenty or thirty years ago.’ It was a defining moment for me, realizing that in another twenty or thirty years into the future somebody else will be sitting here and will not remember that I served here as the publication director of the RSC. It became clear that the RSC must not be personality driven so that our contributions will live beyond the individual contributor. Every person involved in the Religious Studies Center—whether a contributing author, donor, symposium attendee, or publications director—has been building the Religious Studies Center piece by piece. The new RSC leaders will stand on our shoulders and see things we did not see, and they will make changes and adjustments, and that is exactly the plan. We need to adapt and change to meet the needs of an ever-growing international Church.”[23]

After serving as a young dean in the 1970s, Jeffrey R. Holland went on to serve in many other important capacities. At thirty-five, he was called to become the Commissioner of the Church Educational System. Before his fortieth birthday, he was called to be president of Brigham Young University. In 1989, he was called as a member of the First Quorum of Seventy. At fifty-three, he was called to be an Apostle. In November 2023, he became the Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is a truly remarkable story of the ripple effect that occurred during a brief time, in late 1975, when one man with an inspired vision planted a seed that became the catalyst for this story of success.[24]

The Future of the RSC

While serving as president of BYU, President Holland said,

With the horizons expanding at an unprecedented rate for the study of what is ancient and what is modern, it is fitting for us to look to the resources, scholarship, and leadership of the [Religious Studies] Center to assist us in our search for ‘all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and [all] that he will yet reveal . . . pertaining to the kingdom of God.’ We build on a grand tradition and hope to add an increasing amount of substantial, published research to the good work already begun.” [25]

The RSC remains committed to pursuing President Holland’s original and ongoing vision of an ever-expanding horizon of gospel scholarship and sharing our resources with a global audience.

President Holland declared,

For university matters we combine the head and the heart, the spirit and the faith, reason and revelation. The Religious Studies Center and those products that are coming out of it represent that, symbolize that, offer that kind of gospel evidence to the world. I just want you to keep doing it and keep doing it better. I want every piece that comes out to be so stunning that people are speechless, that they are fighting their way to the website or to their mailbox to get their hands on the truly inspirational, profoundly important materials you pursue at the RSC. That is what I hope for today and tomorrow, next month and next year. We have a lot of work to do. This Church has a divine destiny. It also has an immense amount of work to do and considerable opposition to doing it. We need the products of the Religious Studies Center, and we need all the good people who are contributing there.[26]

Notes

[1] Lawrence R. Flake, Prophets and Apostles of the Last Dispensation (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2001), 555–58.

[2] “Jeffrey R. Holland,” www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/jeffrey-r-holland.

[3] Jeffrey R. Holland, “Within the Clasp of Your Arms,” general conference talk, April 1983, www.churchofjesuschrist.org; Gerry Avant, “Faith is New General Authority’s Gift,” Church News, April 29, 1989,12.

[4] Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Heart and a Willing Mind,” address given at the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, May 14, 2015.

[5] Transcript of the RSC fortieth anniversary proceedings, May 14, 2015.

[6] Thomas A. Wayment, Devan Jensen, and Brent R. Nordgren, “Elder Holland Helps Celebrate RSC’s Fortieth, Looks to Future,” BYU Religious Education Review, Fall 2015, 14–19.

[7] “The RSC Turns Forty: A Conversation with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland,” interview by Thomas A. Wayment, Religious Educator 16, no. 2 (2015).

[8] Wayment et al., “Elder Holland Helps Celebrate.”

[9] Truman Madsen, LaMar Berrett, and Spencer Palmer, “A Summary of Discussion,” May 11, 1976, Brigham Young University.

[10] Jeffrey R. Holland, “. . . Of Countries and of Kingdoms,” BYU Studies 18, no. 1 (1977).

[11] Transcript of the RSC fortieth anniversary proceedings, May 14, 2015.

[12] Paul R. Cheesman, preface to The Book of Mormon: The Keystone Scripture (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1988), iv.

[13] “RSC Turns Forty.”

[14] Holland, “Heart and a Willing Mind.”

[15] R. Scott Lloyd, “Religious Studies Center at BYU Looks Back and Ahead,” Church News, May 24, 2015.

[16] “Religious Studies Center Welcomes New Director,” Religious Studies Center Newsletter 5, no. 3 (May 1991).

[17] “RSC Turns Forty,” 5.

[18] “Elder Holland Helps Celebrate.”

[19] “Ten Years at the Religious Studies Center,” interview by Brent R. Nordgren, BYU Religious Education Review, Fall 2010.

[20] “Elder Holland Helps Celebrate.”

[21] “Elder Holland Helps Celebrate.”

[22] “RSC Turns Forty,” 6–7.

[23] “Ten Years at the Religious Studies Center.”

[24] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_R._Holland.

[25] Brent R. Nordgren and R. Devan Jensen, “The RSC Turns Thirty-Five!,” BYU Religious Education Review, Winter 2010, 20.

[26] “RSC Turns Forty.”