Scholars & Saints

The Great Tradition of Mormon Oratory (feat. Richard Benjamin Crosby and Isaac James Richards)

• UVA Mormon Studies • Season 4 • Episode 3

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The Latter-day Saint tradition features a prodigious number of eloquent speakers and famous speeches — from Brigham Young's sermons to Mitt Romney's "Faith in America" address. But how does this tradition, especially with its lack of formal homiletical training, boast such a rich, deeply ingrained, and democratic culture of public address?

On today's episode of Scholars & Saints, host Nicholas Shrum probes these questions with Professor Richard Benjamin Crosby and PhD Student Isaac James Richards, editors of Latter-Day Eloquence: Two Centuries of Mormon Oratory (University of Illinois Press, 2026). Crosby and Richards discuss the oratorical culture in which Latter-day Saints are raised, as well as the different rhetorical topics commonly employed in public addresses, such as rhetorics of exaltation, Zion, and peculiarity. They also examine the adaptation of Mormon rhetoric and public image in response to cultural assimilation, as well as the impacts of the digital age on Latter-day Saint oratory and communication.

Richard Benjamin Crosby is Associate Professor of English at Brigham Young University, where he studies and teaches rhetorical theory and practice, with an interest in political and religious communication.

Isaac James Richards is a PhD Student in Communication Arts and Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University. He studies the history and theory of writing, rhetoric, media, and communication, with particular attention to the intersection of memory, religion, and democracy.