Givens is a member ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). As a young man, he served amission inSao Paulo, Brazil, and later graduated from BYU with a degree in comparative literature. He did graduate work in intellectual history atCornell and earned a PhD in comparative literature from theUniversity of North Carolina, working with Greek, German, Spanish, Portuguese and English languages and literature.[3] A longtime collaborator with his wife,Fiona Givens, he is the co-author ofThe God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life andCrucible of Doubt: Reflections on the Quest for Faith.[4]
The New York Times referred to his work as "polemical" and "provocative"[5] whileHarper's praised him for being "fair-minded and unbiased."[6]
"Romantic Agonies: Human Suffering and the Ethical Sublime."Romanticism Across the Disciplines (1998): 231–53.ISBN978-0761811039
"'This Great Modern Abomination': Orthodoxy and Heresy in American Religion."Mormons and Mormonism: An Introduction to an American World Religion (2001).ISBN978-0252026096
"'There Is Room for Both': Mormon Cinema and the Paradoxes of Mormon Culture."BYU Studies 46.2 (2007): 188–208.
"'Common Sense' Meets the Book of Mormon: Source, Substance and Prophetic Disruption."Revisiting Thomas F. O'Dea's The Mormons: Contemporary Perspectives (2008): 79–98.ISBN978-0874809206