Title: Stretching the Heavens: The Life of Eugene England and the Crisis of Modern Mormonism
Author: Terryl Givens
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Genre: Religious Non-Fiction
Year Published: 2021
Number of Pages: 330
Binding: Hardback
ISBN: 9781469664330
Price: $34.95
Reviewed by Kevin Folkman for the Association for Mormon Letters
For those unfamiliar with Eugene England’s career as one of the 20th century’s most visionary Mormon thinkers, Terryl Givens’ Stretching the Heavens: The Life of Eugene England and the Crisis of Modern Mormonism is a valuable introduction to a singularly complex individual. England was also a master teacher, accomplished writer, and consummate disciple, who lived by a few simple tenets: A fierce determination to be a true disciple of Christ, to extend charity to all, and that differences between people with opposing viewpoints could be resolved through open and honest dialogue. On the other hand, he often ran afoul of church and university authority with his speculative theology and writing. His biography ultimately ends like the Shakespearean tragedies that England loved. Forced to resign from a tenured position at BYU, he died shortly after from a fast-moving cancer at far too young an age.
Terryl Givens is an emeritus professor of religious studies at the University of Richmond and a senior research fellow at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute at BYU. He makes good use of his background in religious history and theology to describe the doctrinal currents and questions swirling around Eugene England and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the latter half of the 20th century. Givens initially turned down the request by England’s widow to write his biography, but then took on the project a few years later. The resulting volume tells the story of England’s career in the context of a time of profound change in the world and the LDS church.
Givens writes of England’s optimism and assumption of the best intentions of others, resulting in a perceived weakness that Givens labels repeatedly as naive. For those unfamiliar with the arc of England’s life and career, the constant references to naivete and tone-deafness can be a bit jarring. Even if you know of the tragedy of England’s final years, it still seems harsh to see the constant references Givens makes to England’s perceived hubris. It begins in the early chapters in Stretching the Heavens and rarely lets up. However, acknowledging England’s lifelong commitment to dialogue, it is likely that England would have wanted to sit down with Givens and talk about his use of the term.
England’s contributions to Mormon thought and literature include co-founding Dialogue magazine while a graduate student at Stanford, working at the Church History department under the leadership of Leonard Arrington, and several years as the lone Mormon on the faculty at St. Olaf’s Lutheran-sponsored college in Minnesota. That’s the setting that prompted England, also serving as a branch president over his small LDS congregation, to pen perhaps one of his most widely-read essays, Blessing the Chevrolet. After years of turmoil, he finally secured a tenured position in the English department at BYU. During those BYU years, he served as head of the Honors program, edited volumes of poetry and literature by LDS authors, and co-founded the Association for Mormon Letters.
Givens documents the equally remarkable times that England’s speeches, teaching, and writing incurred the disapproval of Church leadership, including infamous run-ins with apostles. Publicly discussing differences with popularly accepted doctrines and policies of the church would prove challenging to England. Given his commitment to dialogue, it was inevitable that he would attract the attention of church authority, but rarely in the way England intended. Givens writes that in the 1960s, England delivered a sermon at an interfaith forum at Stanford University that appeared later in Dialogue, where it came under scrutiny by church leadership. The topic was the atonement, a frequent subject for England. That sermon emphasized atonement as an act of reconciling ourselves towards God through seeing Christ’s sacrifice as an example of the selfless love that we should emulate. Givens reviews various theories of atonement and notes that LDS theology leans more towards a substitutionary view that saw Christ as accepting punishment for our sins so that God can be reconciled with us. This take on the atonement rankled some of the general authorities, who viewed it as a challenge to the exclusive authority claims of the Church. When England wrote to several of those church authorities, Givens surmises that England “…was seeking affirmation, not guidance.” [p130] Coupled with England’s tendency to attract a following, Givens believes that this was the root of his continuing tenuous relationship with more orthodox elements within the church. England also opposed the Vietnam war, raised questions about the temple/priesthood ban on black members of the church, and later questioned about the church’s attitude towards women, polygamy, LGBTQIA+ members, and the nature of eternal progression. His stand on these and other issues affected his long desire to join the faculty at BYU, which came only after he severed his ties to Dialogue magazine. His approach to teaching, which included encouraging students to ask questions about long-held beliefs, led to occasional complaints from some students, their parents, as well as other faculty members in his own and other departments.
England’s response to these complaints was always the same: an offer to meet or otherwise discuss together the differences, and just as importantly for him, the areas of agreement. He viewed it as a means of promoting peace and teaching charity as a gospel principle. This commitment to interaction as a catalyst to understanding guided many of his actions. Givens notes that once at BYU, his home near campus became a nexus of student and faculty gatherings for music, readings, and open discussions on a variety of topics, religious or secular.
England’s continual pursuit of dialogue on church-related and often controversial issues only served as additional evidence to his critics that despite his service in the church, he was unfit to teach at the Church’s premier university. After some ill-considered comments as an audience member at a Sunstone symposium, pressure mounted for BYU to sever ties with him. Asked to resign, he found a new position as writer-in-residence at Utah Valley State College (later Utah Valley University) where he led the creation of the first Mormon studies program in the country. Sadly, he developed brain cancer and died after only a year in that position.
Given’s greatest contribution to this biography is his familiarity with both religious history and the trends sweeping through Christianity in general. Much of what England advocated, such as questioning the divine origin of the priesthood/temple ban on Blacks, or a greater role for women in the church, have been or are in the process of being changed. Others are still topics for dialogue. Stretching the Heavens pays tribute to a remarkable scholar and writer, and to a new openness on the part of the institutional church and its culture. It’s an important contribution in understanding the environment in which the church and its members continue to operate and introduces a powerful voice to new generations of aspiring scholars and members at a dynamic time in the church’s history.