Foundations and Dreams

President Dallin H. Oaks called Doctrine and Covenants 88 “the first and greatest revelation of this dispensation on the subject of education” and “the basic constitution of Church education. It defines Brigham Young University’s role in the kingdom” (“A House of Faith,” BYU annual university conference address, 31 August 1977). As BYU’s basic constitution, Doctrine and Covenants 88—which Joseph Smith named the Olive Leaf—reminds us that the university’s spiritual origins predate the founding of Brigham Young Academy in pioneer Utah. The Olive Leaf links BYU to the Prophet Joseph, with his extravagant thirst for knowledge, and to similar revelations he received affirming that “the glory of God is intelligence” and admonishing the Saints to “become acquainted with all good books, and with languages, tongues, and people”; with “history,” “countries,” and the “laws of God and man” (Doctrine and Covenants 90:15; 93:36, 53).

The Olive Leaf links BYU to the School of the Prophets, which placed learning among Latter-day Saints on spiritual foundations, and to the University of the City of Nauvoo, with its ambitious Olive Leaf–inspired curriculum and with the high hopes Joseph had to found a university that would become “one of the great lights of the world” ( Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Hyrum Smith, “A Proclamation to the Saints Scattered Abroad,” Times and Seasons 2, no. 6 [15 January 1841]: 274). These and many other educational currents flow from the Church in Joseph’s day to BYU today.

But above all, the Olive Leaf links BYU to the Church’s first temple and to Latter-day Saint temples generally. Verses from this revelation, including the oft-repeated injunction to “seek learning, even by study and also by faith” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:118), were quoted in the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple (see Doctrine and Covenants 109:7). The overlap between Doctrine and Covenants 88 and 109 bespeaks deep continuities and homologies between school and temple in Latter-day Saint history and doctrine. Church schools were originally housed in temples. Today they often stand beside temples. And they share with temples a mandate to become houses of faith, learning, and the Spirit (see Doctrine and Covenants 88:119, 137).

The following excerpts from the Olive Leaf and from Doctrine and Covenants 90 and 93 illustrate foundational principles of Church education regarding truth, learning, and schools:
• Truth: God is the source of truth and light; His light quickens the understanding; He gives law to all things; His creations reveal His majesty.
• Learning: To comprehend light, learners must be clean and sanctify themselves, having eyes and minds single to God; they are to seek learning diligently, both by study and by faith; they are to teach one another not only doctrine but broadly of things in heaven and in earth so as to be prepared in all things.
• Schools: Church schools are to be temple-like houses of learning and faith; in them, teachers and students are to learn from each other such that all are edified of all; in them, all gather as brothers and sisters in the bonds of love, remembering their covenants and determined to walk in the commandments.

Brigham Young’s famous founding charge to Karl G. Maeser—that he “ought not to teach even the alphabet or the multiplication tables without the Spirit of God”—is well known (page 14). It is BYU’s prime directive. Maeser himself referred to the charge as the “one thing constant” and “the mainspring of all her labors” (“History of the Academy,” page 21).

The version here has been excerpted from Reinhard Maeser, Karl G. Maeser: A Biography by His Son (Provo: Brigham Young University, 1928), 76–80; the text has been modernized.

This address was delivered at Brigham Young Academy’s first Founders Day exercises. President Maeser recounted how Brigham Young Academy began with the revelation to Brigham Young of “the necessity for the establishment of a new kind of educational institution for Zion” (page 19). The new educational system was not merely to duplicate existing models, for “following . . . in the old grooves would simply lead to the same results” (page 20). Brigham Young Academy was to be unique. At BYA “neither the alphabet nor the multiplication tables should be taught without the Spirit of God” (page 20). “The spirit of the latter-day work” was to go through the academy “like a golden thread” (page 21). Karl G. Maeser served as president of Brigham Young Academy from 1876 to 1892. This speech was originally printed in Karl G. Maeser: A Biography by His Son by Reinhard Maeser (Provo: Brigham Young University, 1928), 128 32.

Concerned about rising secularism in Church education, J. Reuben Clark Jr., first counselor in the First Presidency, gave this address to Church seminary and institute leaders at the BYU summer school in Aspen Grove. It has been called “the most influential address to seminary and institute teachers in the history of Church education” (By Study and Also by Faith: One Hundred Years of Seminaries and Institutes of Religion [Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2015], 101). While President Clark focused on seminary and institute teachers, the talk also implied the university’s need to hire Latter-day Saint faculty in all disciplines who were fully converted, for “our Church schools cannot be manned by unconverted, untestimonied teachers” (page 33). President Packer admonished BYU faculty that “The Charted Course” “should be read by every one of you every year. It is insightful; it is profound; it is prophetic; it is scripture” (“The Snow-White Birds,” page 230). So it is included among BYU’s founding documents even though its focus is on seminaries and institute teachers

Spencer W. Kimball was president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he gave this seminal address at the Founders Day commemoration on October 10, 1975—almost a hundred years to the day after the university’s founding. Speaking prophetically, President Kimball envisioned a remarkable destiny for BYU in its second century. His talk drew upon his visionary 1967 speech “Education for Eternity”; it also became the basis for his inaugural charge to Jeffrey R. Holland in 1980. This speech was unique as a major address by a president of the Church in that it was entirely focused on BYU’s mission. Its soaring expectations and sobering admonitions have guided the pursuit of excellence at BYU for nearly half a century. It has become a foundational discourse for the university, much as “The Charted Course of the Church in Education” (pages 23–41) has for the Church Educational System.

When President Jeffrey R. Holland began his administration, the university did not have a formal mission statement. It was felt that BYU needed to set forth its mission publicly, clearly, succinctly, and boldly. President Holland briefly discussed writing that statement in a BYU devotional in 1981. He said that he “tried to read almost everything that had been said about BYU and then attempted to reduce that down to a single statement . . . as to why BYU exists” (“Virtus et Veritas,” BYU devotional address, 8 September 1981). He then drafted a lofty, eloquent mission statement that, with very little modification, was endorsed by the board and adopted by the university. It has guided and inspired BYU for more than four decades.

The Aims of a BYU Education builds upon the Mission of Brigham Young University. Focusing on student outcomes, it attempts to articulate the desired effect of a BYU education in the lives of students. The document appeared just as higher education was undergoing a fundamental paradigm shift from a “teaching paradigm” to a “learning paradigm” (Robert B. Barr and John Tagg, “From Teaching to Learning—New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education,” Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning 27, no. 6 [November–December 1995]: 12–26). The aims prepared the university to translate its educational aspirations into learning outcomes, as would soon be required by its accrediting bodies. The sections were purposefully ordered “to envelop BYU’s intellectual aims within a more complete, even eternal, perspective that begins with spiritual knowledge and ends with knowledge applied to the practical tasks of living and serving” (page 71).

In this university conference address, President Kevin J Worthen captured the essence of BYU’s mission and aims in a memorable two-word phrase: “inspiring learning.” The idea of inspiring learning quickly spread across campus, guiding educational initiatives and enabling student learning in new and expansive ways.

Though Elder Hafen was particularly addressing religious educators when he gave this speech, he chose to focus on the broader history and mission of BYU. Elder Hafen traced the history of why prophets have chosen to preserve a few Latter-day Saint colleges and universities—such as BYU and its sister institutions—in which religion can be integrated across the entire campus, rather than opt exclusively for the much less expensive and simpler model of Latter-day Saint institutes, where the faith is taught next door to secular universities. The history Elder Hafen recounted illustrates both the problems and promises of teaching and learning at a fully integrated Latter-day Saint university such as BYU.

When Elder Holland gave this talk, it was one of three addresses during university conference that spoke to the need for BYU to remain faithful to its unique mission, as President Kimball had admonished in his centennial address. Elder Holland emphasized what must happen during the second half of BYU’s second century. Having loved BYU for nearly three-fourths of a century, Elder Holland spoke with great feeling, reminding the audience that “BYU will become an ‘educational Mt. Everest’ only to the degree it embraces its uniqueness, its singularity” (page 139).

John S. Tanner was serving as academic vice president when he delivered this address. The exhibit Education in Zion had just opened in the newly completed Joseph F. Smith Building. Tanner encouraged faculty to visit the exhibit, which recounts the story of education among Latter-day Saints with a focus on BYU. In a sense, it functions as a visual companion to Envisioning BYU. During his speech, Tanner took the faculty on a virtual tour of the exhibit. He concluded with an image from Lord of the Rings, reminding faculty that they, too, must light fires that rally those who will fight with the King when He returns. The first section of the talk, which deals primarily with administrative matters, has been omitted.

C. Terry Warner gave this beautiful devotional address as he was about to retire, having served for many years at BYU. He had been chair of the philosophy department, director of the Honors Program, and dean of the College of General Studies. At the end of his career, he was the founding curator of the Education in Zion exhibit in the Joseph F. Smith Building. Warner’s devotional provides an inspiring perspective on the university drawn from his years at BYU and his work on the exhibit. He reminds us of the vision of BYU’s founders and calls on BYU to remain true to its heritage.

President Russell M. Nelson, an apostle at the time that he gave these touching remarks, recounted in this talk how the gospel had “provided the undergirding foundation” for his remarkable educational journey (page 292). His journey had taught him, among other things, that “all truth is part of the everlasting gospel” (page 291) and that “when the laws of God are obeyed, wanted blessings will always result, not just maybe or sometimes” (page 293). President Nelson’s sterling example reminds us that we are blessed as we become disciples in the disciplines. Indeed, the Lord expects all of His people to be consecrated covenant keepers who are following the covenant path, no matter their worldly occupation.