Fiona Givens

Last updated
Fiona Givens
Born
Fiona Anne Bulbeck
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Writer, Speaker
Spouse Terryl Givens
Website FionaGivens.com

Fiona Givens is an American writer, teacher, and speaker who focuses on matters of history, theology, and culture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Contents

Biography and career

Givens was born in Nairobi, Kenya as the oldest of three children. She grew up in Nairobi, Tanzania, and the Seychelles and was educated in British convent schools. She converted to the LDS Church while in Frankfurt, Germany. She obtained bachelor's degrees in French and German from the University of Richmond and a master's degree in European history.

She was director of the French Language program at Patrick Henry High School in Ashland, Virginia. She also worked in translation services, as a lobbyist, and as communications director of a non-profit organization.

In the past decade, she and her husband have conducted meetings with Mormons questioning their faith. [1] She described a talk given by Dieter F. Uchtdorf on this topic as "the balm of Gilead for many people who are struggling with questions to which they cannot find answers.” [1]

In her 2016 article in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Givens wrote about ancient traditions which associated Heavenly Mother with the Holy Spirit. [2] In 2019, Givens gave a keynote speech at a conference "Women and Mormonism" where she urged the LDS Church “to tap more deeply the potential of a theological framework that has dared to challenge the model of unequivocal patriarchy, both on earth and in heaven.” [3] In March 2021, Givens gave a fireside chat and spoke about Heavenly Mother, suggesting that she was present at Joseph Smith's First Vision. [4] As of May 2021, Givens amicably parted ways with the Maxwell Institute. [4]

Writing

Givens has published essays and articles in Exponent II, LDS Living, Journal of Mormon History, and Dialogue. She is also a frequent speaker on podcasts and at conferences. [3] [5] A longtime collaborator with her husband, Terryl Givens, she is the co-author of The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life,The Crucible of Doubt: Reflections on the Quest for Faith, and The Christ Who Heals: How God Restored the Truth that Saves Us. [6] Their most recent collaboration is entitled All Things New: Rethinking Sin, Salvation, and Everything in Between. [7] She has also written about historical references to Joseph Smith and priesthood keys for women. [2] In 2020, she contributed a chapter on "Feminism and Heavenly Mother" to The Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender.

Personal life

Givens and her husband have six children. [8] She is a member of the LDS Church. After living in Richmond, Virginia, [8] she and Terryl Givens moved to Provo, Utah to work at the Maxwell Institute at BYU.

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints</span> Nontrinitarian, Christian restorationist church

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a restorationist, nontrinitarian Christian denomination belonging to Mormonism. The church is headquartered in the United States in Salt Lake City, Utah and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. According to the church, it has over 17 million members and 62,544 full-time volunteer missionaries. Based on these numbers, the church is the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States as of 2012, and reported over 6.8 million US members as of 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mormonism</span> Religious tradition and theology founded by Joseph Smith

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In Mormonism, the restoration refers to a return of the authentic priesthood power, spiritual gifts, ordinances, living prophets and revelation of the primitive Church of Christ after a long period of apostasy. While in some contexts the term may also refer to the early history of Mormonism, in other contexts the term is used in a way to include the time that has elapsed from the church's earliest beginnings until the present day. Especially in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "the restoration" is often used also as a term to encompass the corpus of religious messages from its general leaders down to the present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heavenly Mother (Mormonism)</span> Mormon deity

In the Latter Day Saint movement, Goddess the Heavenly Mother, also known as Elah the Mother in Heaven, is the mother of human spirits and the wife of God the Father. Collectively Heavenly Mother and Father are called Heavenly Parents. Those who accept the Mother in Heaven doctrine trace its origins to Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The doctrine became more widely known after Smith's death in 1844.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latter Day Saint movement</span> Religious movement

The Latter Day Saint movement is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Joseph Smith in the late 1820s.

In orthodox Mormonism, the term God generally refers to the biblical God the Father, whom Latter Day Saints also refer to as Elohim or Heavenly Father, and the term Godhead refers to a council of three distinct divine persons consisting of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. However, in Latter Day Saint theology the term God may also refer to, in some contexts, the Godhead as a whole or to each member individually. Latter Day Saints believe that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are three distinct beings, and that the Father and Jesus have perfected, glorified, physical bodies, while the Holy Ghost is a spirit without a physical body. Latter Day Saints also believe that there are other gods and goddesses outside the Godhead, such as a Heavenly Mother—who is the wife of God the Father—and that faithful Latter-day Saints may attain godhood in the afterlife. The term Heavenly Parents is used to refer collectively to the divine partnership of Heavenly Father and a Heavenly Mother. Joseph Smith taught that God was once a man on another planet before being exalted to Godhood.

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The Book of Moses, dictated by Joseph Smith, is part of the scriptural canon for some denominations in the Latter Day Saint movement. The book begins with the "Visions of Moses", a prologue to the story of the creation and the fall of man, and continues with material corresponding to the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible's (JST) first six chapters of the Book of Genesis, interrupted by two chapters of "extracts from the prophecy of Enoch".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celestial marriage</span> Mormon doctrine that marriage can last forever in heaven

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terryl Givens</span> Senior research fellow at Brigham Young University

Terryl Lynn Givens is a senior research fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute of Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University (BYU). Until 2019, he was a professor of literature and religion at the University of Richmond, where he held the James A. Bostwick Chair in English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mormon cosmology</span> View of the universe and nature of divinity in the Latter day saint movement

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References

  1. 1 2 Goodstein, Laura (2013-10-08). "A Leader's Admission of 'Mistakes' Heartens Some Doubting Mormons". New York Times . Retrieved 2021-05-10.
  2. 1 2 Riess, Jana (2016-06-21). "Mormon founder turned over priesthood keys to women, says Deseret Book author". Religion News Service . Retrieved 2021-05-10.
  3. 1 2 Stack, Peggy Fletcher (2019-03-08). "Early feminists talked about a Heavenly Mother". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
  4. 1 2 Stack, Peggy Fletcher (2019-05-08). "Latter-day Saints are talking more about Heavenly Mother, and that's where the debates and divisions begin". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
  5. ↑ Hales, Laura Harris. "The Christ Who Heals - Fiona Givens", Latter-day Saint Perspectives Podcast, 2017. Retrieved on 10 March 2021.
  6. ↑ Goodstein, Laurie (2013-07-20). "Some Mormons Search the Web and Find Doubt". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
  7. ↑ Noyce, David (2017-12-19). "Four takeaways from a new book that challenges Mormons to learn more about their own doctrine". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
  8. 1 2 Toone, Trent (2012-11-15). "Scholars Terryl and Fiona Givens discuss life, love and their new book". Deseret News. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
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