Welding Another Link: Latter-day Saint Essays on Faith and Intellect

by Nathan B. Oman

Available March 26, 2026

Book Description:

Welding Another Link: Latter-day Saint Essays on Faith and Intellect is a collection of deeply reflective essays in which Nathan B. Oman explores the intersections of belief, reason, history, and community within Latter-day Saint life. Across topics ranging from scriptural interpretation and religious authority to Zion, pluralism, and the challenges of modernity, Oman examines how faith is lived and understood in a complex world.

Running through the volume is a consistent plea for Latter-day Saint intellectual life grounded not in alienation but in “delight and wonder,” echoing the philosophical lineage of thaumazo and Orson F. Whitney’s charge to keep “welding another link in wonder’s chain.” Oman argues that the Church’s future depends on the ability of its thinkers and members to celebrate the Restoration in ways that are honest, compelling, and attuned to contemporary challenges—while remaining faithful to its divine core. This means acknowledging flaws, responding to hard questions, and imagining new, responsible ways of articulating timeless truths, much as earlier generations of Latter-day Saint thinkers once did in their own eras. The result is a work that models a mature, generous, and hopeful form of discipleship—one that sees the life of the mind as an expression of devotion and an essential part of the ongoing Restoration.

About the Author:

Nathan B. Oman is the Rita Anne Rollins Professor at William & Mary Law School, located in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2006. Prior to becoming a professor, Oman practiced law in Washington DC, clerked for Judge Morris Shepard Arnold of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, and worked as a staffer in the US Senate. He has been a visiting professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Cornell Law School, and the University of Richmond Law School. He is married to Heather Bennett Oman. They have two children and live in James City County, Virginia.

More Information:

ISBN 978-1-58958-837-0