Interfaith academic conference about ‘The Chosen’ set to take place at BYU

Scholars from universities affiliated with a variety of faith traditions are coming together for the first-ever academic conference about “The Chosen.”

“The Chosen,” a television series about Jesus’ life and ministry with his disciples, has intrigued millions of viewers across the globe. As the show grows in popularity, a group of scholars decided to create a conference that’ll explore topics like “The Women of The Chosen” and what the show contributes to academic discussions about who Jesus was. It’s free and open to the public — registration is required. Tickets are still available. The conference takes place on Thursday and Friday in Provo.

The conference will take place at BYU and feature scholars from Ave Maria University, The Catholic University of America, Ohio Dominican University and Abilene Christian University among others.

Ahead of the conference, BYU professor John Hilton III spoke to the Deseret News about how the conference came together.

How did ‘The Chosen’ conference come together?

“The Chosen” conference is the result of conversations that took place among professors of different faith backgrounds about the show.

“I reached out to colleagues at different institutions like Baylor, Providence College (a Catholic school) and Biola University,” Hilton said. “As we talked together, we said, ‘What if we joined forces and planned a conference where we could bring academics from a variety of different religious perspectives to talk about ‘The Chosen?’'”

The result is the upcoming conference.

It starts with Brad Pelo, president and executive producer of “The Chosen,” returning to his alma mater, BYU, on Thursday night, to kick off the conference with a keynote speech. Hilton said, “He’ll talk about the backstory of how ‘The Chosen’ came to be as well as share some insights about what the future holds.”

Stan Jantz, CEO of the Come and See Foundation, will also speak about the efforts to translate the show into 600 languages.

On Friday, there’ll be an full day of presentations from scholars of different faiths, including nondenominational Christians, Catholics and Latter-day Saints. But the goal of this academic conference isn’t just to put scholars in a room using jargon to talk about the show. Hilton said the conference aspires to be accessible to the public and fans of the show.

“Academic conferences sometimes have a reputation for being a little dry with scholars formally reading papers,” Hilton said. “One of the things that we’re trying at this conference is to have a high level of scholarship, but also present it in a way that’s engaging and accessible.”

Hilton highlighted some of the upcoming presentations including one from Douglas Huffman of Biola University about how the show balances authenticity and relatability with plausibility.

“If you think about it, there’s a lot of things that we don’t know about the life of Jesus Christ. In fact, we have less than 100 days of Christ’s mortal life recorded,” Hilton said, explaining how Huffman’s talk will approach that issue.

Robert K. Garcia, a Baylor University professor, will talk about the significance of the individual in “The Chosen.” Patrick Gray of Rhodes College plans on talking about Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the show. BYU professor Matthew Grey will bring an archaeological lens to the show. For a full list of presentations, see this list.

For those who are skeptical about attending an academic conference, Hilton said, “This is an opportunity to go deeper and to examine more carefully some of the scriptural stories and research that undergirds ‘The Chosen.’”

When Hilton was asked why he loves the show and is doing this conference, he said, “I want to learn all I can about Jesus Christ.” Hilton explained that he loves learning from the scriptures and also finds value in scholarly works, archaeology, art, movies and music. “The Chosen” in particular has been something he’s loved.

Hilton recounted how he and his friend were talking about the show. When they would talk about specifics, his friend said he didn’t ever think about how people reacted when Jesus performed a miracle. When he saw the reaction in the show — people clapping — it expanded his mind. He started thinking about what it would have been like to be there when Jesus did that.

The aim of the conference is to continue thinking about the show in new, expansive ways.