Samuel Brown lives the life of a physician-scientist whose life journey has brought him step by step and new experience by new experience from rebellion, rationalism, and atheism to a place where, as he says, “[that] we might make sense of our thinking within a world charged by the presence of God.” He is not naturally social or comfortable with others but through the decades has come to appreciate the importance of community bonded through commitment to a shared path, open-hearted sharing, and service, as well as the people themselves. But it is a forty-year story that brings him to where he is now: “all in.”
Sam shares this story in a new book of essays, Where the Soul Hungers: One Doctor’s Journey from Atheism to Faith, (Neal A Maxwell Center and Deseret Book, 2021), which he discusses here with LDF host Dan Wotherspoon. In it, they discuss the arc of Sam’s life, as well as many interesting takes he has arrived at through his medical and also gospel studies (leaving many more un-noted here but in the book). Among the things he speaks on his why how we frame things is more important than the questions we ask, if there is more to learn from the story of Solomon’s wisdom and judgment in the case of the contested baby, from David and Goliath, from baking bread, from ritual and empowering our senses to take us to wonderful views and understanding.
Here we are celebrating a wonderful book and the journey of an even more remarkable man. Join us!
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Links:
Samuel M. Brown, Where the Soul Hungers: One Doctor’s Journey from Atheism to Faith (BYU/Maxwell Institute/Deseret Book, 2021)
Kindle Version
Samuel M. Brown, First Principles and Ordinances: The Fourth Article of Faith in Light of the Temple (Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Studies (2014)
Samuel M. Brown, Joseph Smith’s Translation: The Words and World of Early Mormonism (Oxford, 2020)
Samuel M. Brown, In Heaven As It Is on Hearth: Joseph Smith and the Early Conquest of Death (Oxford, 2012)