Today we’ll talk with religious scholar Jana Riess. She gave the 2024 Arrington Mormon History Lecture at USU last week titled “Latter-day Saint Women and the Quiet Erosion of Certainty.”
Historically, Latter-day Saint women in the U.S. have been significantly more certain in their beliefs and more actively engaged in the church than their male counterparts. However, Riess says that findings from the 2022-23 Next Mormons Survey reveal that this gender advantage in religious certainty has diminished. She discusses how this change affects women’s perceptions of their spiritual lives and their roles within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Jana Riess is a senior columnist for Religion News Service and a prominent contributor to The Salt Lake Tribune. Her notable works include “The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church” and the comedic memoir “Flunking Sainthood.” Riess holds a doctorate in American religious history from Columbia University and an MDiv degree from Princeton Theological Seminary.