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The Achievement of Lowell Bennion

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The Achievement of Lowell Bennion s u N S T O N E A Review Essay and Bibliography THE ACHIEVEMENT OF LOWELL BENNION By Eugene England Lowell Bennion, one of the major forces in the intellectual, moral, and Lowell! Bennion’s voice is not elegant, but rather rough and spiritual life of twentieth-century Mormonism, turned eighty on July homey, quite informal and unself-conscious, even when deliver- 26. As: a.fitting conclusion to his eightieth yea~, in which he has pub- ing a talk. on preparing for a happy marriage to an LDS General lished hi:; twentieth book, The Unknown Testament (Deseret Book, Conference. He is completely fearless, almost old-fashioned, out- 1988) and been awarded the prestigous Richard D Bass Award for spoken against unchastity, drugs, intellectual pride, Mormon mater- Distinguished Service in the Humanities, we publish this intellectual ialism and prejudice-and willing to be heard and published histoU, review, and bibliography. anywhere. Until authors were no longer identified in the 1970s, his name appeared more often than any other in LDS Church WHAT DOES THE LORD REQUIRE OF THEE? lesson manuals for al{1 auxiliaries. He has spoken in more essays BUT TO DO JUSTLY, IO LOVE MERCY, and books, over a greater variety of subjects, than perhaps any AND TO WALK HUMBLY WITH THY GOD. other contemporary lVlormon. He is the only one to have written (MICAH 6:8) for virtually every official and independent Mormon periodical of the m,entieth century: Why do that voice and figure haunt-as well as enliven-us? A UNIQUE FIGURE AND VOICE ENLIVENS-AND HAUNTS-Brother Bennion is among the gentlest and meekest of men, con- late twentieth century Mormonism. The figure is stooped slightlystantly conciliatory and non-conffontive However; in a time when forward, dressed in work clothes or inexpensive, sometimes mis-our quick growth in numbers and material blessings tempt us matched pants and jacket, with blunt farmer’s hands protruding,Mormons to forget some important things, his teaching and and a browned face and pate, only a fringe of sand> greying hair. writing-and especially his life-provide us our clearest, most That figure was seen driving to teach religion at the Salt Lake Insti-challenging reminders of the centrat message of the Hebrew tute or sociology at the University of Utah or delivenng donatedprophets and Christ, reaffirmed by the prophets of the Restora- food to a Salt Lake widow, all in the same battered 1946 Ford tion: that true religion is based in social morality. His voice has truck. He was seen, awkward in academic robes, delivenng the spoken, tbr nearly sixty years, with a simplicity and clarity like baccalaureate address at the University of Utah and, more com- water in a dry land, in favor of positive, integrated religion, in sup- fortable in grubby levis, boots, and straw hat, teaching city boysport of a holistic philosophy of life, grounded in affirmative and how to ride a horse and to build a pole barn in the Teton Valley.universal pnnciples. For him, religion is based not in strictures He was seen giving a Brigham Young University devotional address,or dogmatic theology’ or ingenious, ever-changing programs and instructing a conference of Mormon Sunday School teachers, con- anxious performance. His faith is based in Joseph Smith’s revela- ductmg :sacrament service as bishop of a Salt Lake City ward and, tion of the truth that all humans are co-eternal with God-the now with the hint of a shuffle added to his unhurried, bent-forwardsame kind of beings and thus co-creators with him: Their basic gait, cnoving from session to session at the Sunstone Theologicalnatures are fulfilled and moved to progression through receiving Sympos:ium. unconditional love and being given opportunities to love and to serve creatively the needs of all such God-like beings, including EUGENE ENGLAND is a professor of English at Brigham Young themselves. University and author of Dialogues with Myself and Why the We are haunted by this unique voice because we know that Church Is As True As the Gospel. This introduction and at times we have discriminated against others because of their graphy will appear in somewhat different form in Englandls edi- race or sex. We know that sometimes we value programs over tion of The Best of Lowell Bennion: Selected Writings, 1928-1988, people and sometimes break hearts rather than break rules-or which will be published by Deseret Book later this year sometimes prefer "right doctrine" to simple justice and mercy. We PAGE 24 JULY 1988 5 U N S T O N E know that with all our growth and great buildings and high activitypoor and deprived throughout the Salt Lake Valley. They spoke we sometimes forget the fatherless and widows, the naked and with the unique authority of practicing Christians. those in prison, the ones right among us as well as strangers and Almost every Saturday Brothel_- B. would accompany a Lambda foreigners. We know how hard it is, with busy schedules andDelta Sigma chapter or two as they, cleaned the yard and painted a favorable image to maintain and the cumbering responsibilitiesthe house of a widow or elderly couple in the Valley. His stu- of a worldwide church, to remember "the least of thesd’ dents saw him delivering food in his truck. We knew from per- Brother Bennion is one who has not forgotten. Withoutsonal experience that Elder Hanks sometimes spent a stonW winter patroni7ing or condemning he has taught and written to remindevening driving around helping people stalled in the snow, and us. And he has set a constant, humble example for us. At thewe had heard that when all the ihotels refused rooms to black same time-and this, I believe, is the reason his ideas and exam- athletes visiting in Salt Lake, his family took them in. When that ple will continue to haunt us, the reason he will long be a gentlefaculty told us the Gospel was true and that it called us to a life but piercing reminder-he has provided the most unified pictureof selfless service, we believed them When they told us to be we have of our theology and the clearest explication of its centralpatient about the Church’s denial of priesthood to blacks, that doctrines concerning Christ’s atonement and the way of salva-such a practice did not prove either that God was a racist- tion. The force of his intelligence and teaching skills, as well aspunishing blacks or that Christ’s Restored Gospel was untrue, we his leadership and involvement in public and personal service,trusted them. have unforgettably touched his students and will continue to move Bennion’s approach to teaching which greatly influenced the those who read him to new vision and practical courage. rest of his faculty and gradually influenced his many students, was based partly on the example of his fathe~ who was known as one of the finest Socratic teachers in the Church. But Brother Bennion is a better teacher than write~ but his best B. added a unique perspective of his own, which he articulated essays and sermons convey the teache~: Like every one of his classearly in his missionary journal and has both preached and prac- presentations, each is focused on a single, fundamental, dear idea,riced consistently for sixty years: that aW religious pnnciple must usually one that is repeated in other forms and combinations else-be consistent within its whole context, particularly the great and where in his work. He does not provide answers to questions, repeated fundamentals (including Christ’s teachings), and that its as if religion were simply a dogmatic set of answers. For him,reliability is greatly strengthened by verification through a variety as he believes it was tbr Christ, religion is rather a unified setof ways of knowing: reason and. experience as well as authority of tools, principles, ideas, and feelings that can provide a perma-and the witness of the Spirit. This seems simple and obvious nent, growing basis for dealing with the bewildering variety ofenough, but the consequences are enormous for how religion is questions and challenges that life poses. It thus can help personstaught and learned and lived-and that approach was not only fulfill their deepest natures as children of God. One of his stu-unusual compared to most relil~ous instruction in the Church dents~ who entered the "U" in 1950, remembers attending Ben-when Bennion developed it, but it remains all too novel today. niorfs small LDS Institute classes, where there was no indoctrination The orthodox standard of teaching in the Church auxiliaries but members were led to express their developing thoughts andand seminaries, which even influences institutes and college feelings. "That thrilled md’ he says. "It confirmed my soul. For thereligions classes, is still to ask "What word am I thinking; of’ ques- first time in my religious learning I felt the teacher was genuinelytions designed to fit a set outline, with evidence prov~ded only interested in the questions he was asking not simply looking forby quotation of authority or telling of sentimental anecdotes. There a set answer, that he was interested in me and my response Weis another way, the way Bennion has demonstrated was taken by were soon sitting on the edge of our seats trying to help him- Christ, whom he calls "the Master Teache~’ and by the great and that was the best help for teacher/prophets of the scriptures. It insists on consistency, openly I went to the U from 1951 to 1957, interrupted by a mission invites skepticism of itself, and ot~ees a variety of proofs, even asking to Samoa.
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