Truman G. Madsen
Truman G. Madsen (born in 1926) is a philosopher, essayist, teacher, biographer, and a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church). He is emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Brigham Young University, and was Director of the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies in Jerusalem. He held the Richard L. Evans Chair in Religious Studies at B.Y.U. He has been guest professor at Northeastern University, Haifa, and Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. He sponsored several symposia on comparative religion published as Reflections on Mormonism, The Temple in Antiquity, and Chosenness and Covenant in Judaism and Mormonism.
Truman G. Madsen has written and spoken on an astonishingly wide range of topics about the Restored Gospel. Born in Salt Lake City he was a grandson of Heber J. Grant.
In his youth he served in the New England Mission under Elder S. Dilworth Young. Later, at the age of 35, he was called to preside over the same mission where he had earlier served as a young missionary.
His academic studies in the history of ideas, and particularly of philosophy, took place at the University of Utah, University of Southern California, and Harvard University. Throughout his adult life he has studied the life and teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and has thrilled countless audiences as he has shared many of the insights gained from the Prophet’s teaching.
During his life Truman G. Madsen served in many positions in the Mormon Church, such as counselor in the Ensign Stake genealogical committee, counselor in the Atlantic district presidency, bishop of the BYU 11th Ward, a member of the Deseret Sunday School general board, BYU 5th Stake President, and currently patriarch in his stake.
Much of his success has been due to his personal appeal. Though as a boy he and his two brothers were vigorously grilled by his father in the arts of language and presentation, he was blessed with an ideal speaking voice and what a young Cuban convert called a “sparkling personality.” He has a nimble mind and a capacity to grasp profound issues and yet convey them to the comprehension on layperson levels. He has a corps a top-level scholar friends, to whom he can communicate the insights of Joseph Smith on their own level. Virtually all of his presentations are exptemporaneous, and he is a master of this dying art, which is now yielding to the teleprompter and power point. It will probably never be known how many people he has touched and moved in areas ranging from casual to profound, but the number is large. His demand as a speaker began early in his career and has remained intense to the present time. He still travels all over the world to inform and inspire audiences about the exhilarating experiences associated with the gospel of Christ that invite our embrace.
Among his volumes on Mormon thought are: Eternal Man, Christ and the Inner Life, Four Essays on Love, The Highest in Us, The Radiant Life. Five Classics, Joseph Smith, the Prophet., Defender of the Faith, a biography of B. H. Roberts and On Human Nature. He is one of the editors and a contributor to the five-volume Macmillan Encyclopedia of Mormonism. He is married to Ann Nicholls Madsen. They have three children and a Navajo foster son.
For more information, visit his Web site: TrumanMadsen.com
