Angelic Law in the Age of Railways: Law and the Latter-day Saint Tradition
Visiting Scholar Lecture with Nathan B. Oman
Thursday, March 5, 2026, 7:00 PST Albrecht Auditorium
Claremont Graduate University
No religious group in American history has had a more contentious relationship with the law than the Latter-day Saints. Law has been wielded as a weapon against the Latter-day Saints, and their response to legal pressures have shaped Mormon religious practices and beliefs. At the same time, Latter-day Saints have sought to use the law for their own purposes and like other groups have created bodies of internal religious law. This lecture will explore the role of law in the Latter-day Saint tradition, discussing how legal pressures have shaped Mormonism, how Latter-day Saints have influenced secular law, and the unique legal institutions that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has created.
Nathan B. Oman is the Rita Anne Rollins Professor of Law at the College of William & Mary. Most recently he is the author of Living Oracles: Law and the Latter-day Saint Tradition (Oxford UP, 2026). He has authored or co-edited nine books and published numerous articles on law & religion, Mormonism, and legal theory. He was educated at Brigham Young University and Harvard Law School.
