He is the recipient of an Alcuin Fellowship. Born in Dallas, Texas, he joined the LDS Church his freshman year in college. A year later, he served a mission in Japan. For his PhD dissertation, he completed a literary study of the vision of the Tree of Life and how it conveys ideas about teaching and learning. He still emphasizes a literary approach in his research, believing that one of the most powerful ways to understand the scriptures is to understand how the Lord uses the written word—the story—to convey his doctrines. His teaching style is one of lecture and discussion, encouraging students to learn as they try to articulate in class what they are seeing in the scriptures. He and his wife have three children and one daughter-in-law.