Review
Title: Conscience and Community: Sterling McMurrin, Obert C. Tanner & Lowell Bennion
Editors: Robert Alan Goldberg, L. Jackson Newell, and Linda King Newell.
Publisher: University of Utah Press
Genre: Religious Non-Fiction
Year Published: 2018
Number of Pages: 249
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 9781607816041
Price: $25.00
Reviewed by Kevin Folkman for the Association for Mormon Letters
This is a case where I clearly enjoyed the subjects of the book as much if not more than the book itself. Sterling McMurrin, Lowell Bennion, and Obert Tanner were good friends with each other and their wives and faculty mates at the University of Utah. All three also cast long shadows over 20th century Mormon thought and culture, albeit each in different ways.
I first became acquainted with McMurrin when his book, “Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion,” was recommended to me. Reading that volume clarified many of the thoughts I had about the distinctive theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and raised other questions that sent me back to Joseph Smith’s King Follett Discourse and other writings about the LDS church by its leaders and other thinkers. In the process, I came to recognize many of the unique elements of Mormon thought that set it apart from much of Protestant Christianity. I keep “Theological Foundations” close at hand as a continuing valuable reference.
Lowell Bennion had long been held out to me as one of the greatest examples of Christlike charity that the LDS Church has produced. His work with students at the University of Utah Institute of Religion was legendary for the efforts he put into building community among Mormon students, and then getting them involved in serving the greater community. He also founded and ran the Teton Valley Boys Ranch by “building self esteem and forging character in physical achievement.” [p167]
Obert C. Tanner I knew mostly for his philanthropic work in the Salt Lake City community and the jewelry company he founded that still bears his name. What I had not realized is that he also taught Philosophy at the University of Utah, and penned the much-revered manual for LDS Institutes of Religion, “Christ’s Ideals for Living.”
The emphasis of this collection of essays, though, is also about McMurrin’s, Tanner’s, and Bennion’s shared commitment to matters of conscience. While they varied widely in their commitment to LDS doctrines and practices, all of them had developed a keen sense of the importance of learning to follow the inner compass of their beliefs, and living every day guided by that compass.
McMurrin made no excuses for his lack of belief in essential Mormon doctrines. He always considered himself, though heretical in many ways, a “good heretic,” who was not opposed to the church. In fact, when once asked why he didn’t just leave the church, he responded “To go where?” On another occasion, when questioned about how he became disillusioned with the Church, his answer was delivered with a smile. “Oh, I was never illusioned!” [p43]
Tanner, after several months service on his LDS mission to Germany, came to realize that he could see religion and philosophy as complementary ideas, two sides of the same coin. He wrote later in life that “Religion is a way of living while philosophy is a way of thinking. Religion is a search for the good life, philosophy is a search for truth.” [p96] His ambivalence about the exclusive truth claims of the LDS church led him to determine that no single Christian church had the one true way to salvation. He practiced a “pragmatic Christianity…to love and help people…I preach the gospel of hope and good will.” [p97] He taught first in the Church Education system, then later at the University of Utah, all the while building a hugely successful business that allowed him to practice his own brand of compassionate Christianity through his many philanthropic works.
Bennion founded the LDS Institute of Religion at the University of Utah, and presided over its programs for almost 30 years. His office door was always open to students, and he led by example both in commitment to LDS theology and in Christian service. One student who complained that he was tired of just passing the sacrament and ushering at meetings was told to show up at Bennion’s home Saturday morning in his work clothes, ready to go to work. While remaining a faithful and active member of the church his entire life, Bennion’s differences with church leadership over the temple/priesthood ban on members of African ancestry put him at odds with some Church leaders, particularly new Church Commissioner of Education and BYU president Ernest Wilkinson. Rather than sacrifice his principles of equality and a God who is no respecter of persons, Bennion left his institute post to become Dean of Students at the University of Utah and stepped up his work with local community service organizations.
This book is a good summary of the lives of these three remarkable friends, but it is no substitute for digging deeper into their thoughts and writings. If you haven’t known much about them, editors Jackson and Linda Newell and Robert Goldberg have pulled together a well written overview of the lives, conflicts, and achievements of their subjects. Once you have read this volume, you really ought to read McMurrin’s “Theological Foundations,” Tanner’s “Christ’s Ideals for Living,” and the collection of Bennion’s writings compiled by Eugene England, “The Best of Lowell Bennion: Selected Writings 1928-1988,” and let them speak for themselves.
McMurrin, Tanner, and Bennion were teachers first, and their lessons are still available to us. Bennion’s office door is still open, McMurrin is still there trying to help us understand the foundations of our religion, and Tanner’s love for pragmatic Christianity and philanthropy still challenges us. All three would still want us to reach a little higher, think a little harder, and forget ourselves in service to others. Above all, they would want us to cultivate and exercise that internal compass that is one half reason and one half faith, and live each day by the guidance it gives.