When Philip Barlow left Utah to study religion formally in Boston he had no intention of studying anything to do with Mormonism. But as he studied the sources and evidences that scholars used to make their conclusions about religion he came to a realization.

"It gradually dawned on me that I was sitting on the world's richest gold vein of sources for the study of religion back in my old homeland. And so I surprised myself by writing my dissertation on a Mormon topic," Barlow said.

Barlow is now the Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University. At a gathering at the University of Utah campus Tuesday, Sept. 8, he and Brian Birch, founder and director of the religious studies program at Utah Valley University, discussed the possibility of a Mormon Studies program at the U.

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