Learning and Light

As Church commissioner of education during BYU’s centennial year (1975), Neal A. Maxwell wrote an article for the Ensign magazine explaining why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would have a university like BYU. In it he touched on many of the same themes President Spencer W. Kimball articulated in his address “The Second Century of Brigham Young University,” emphasizing the need for BYU to remain “deliberately different,” even unique, in “meeting its rendezvous with destiny.” This text has been excerpted.

Dallin H. Oaks was serving as chair of the executive committee of the BYU Board of Trustees and as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when he delivered this address. He spoke of the challenges BYU faces in becoming a “great university of the Lord—not in the world’s way but in the Lord’s way.” This talk figured prominently in a speech given a few months later by President Kevin J Worthen, titled “BYU: A Unique Kind of Education.”

As president of Brigham Young University, Kevin J Worthen explained to faculty and staff how BYU offers a unique kind of education by linking “faith-based teaching and student-centered research.” Building on then Elder Dallin H. Oaks’s address “Challenges to the Mission of Brigham Young University,” given earlier that year, President Worthen articulated how BYU can achieve its “prophetically proclaimed destiny . . . in a way that is different from that by which other universities have achieved their greatness.”

David A. Bednar was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when he delivered this address and spoke of Joseph Smith’s promise that the work of the Lord will go forward. Elder Bednar encouraged BYU’s leaders to “look unto [the Savior] in every thought; doubt not, fear not” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:36). He emphasized that looking without fear to God rather than to the world means heeding President Spencer W. Kimball’s repeated warnings to “resist anything that would rob BYU of its basic uniqueness in its second century” (“The Second Century of Brigham Young University”). Elder Bednar invited the campus community to remember and apply President Kimball’s counsel.

Kevin J Worthen was serving as president of the university when he delivered this address and introduced the BYU Statement on Belonging and the creation of the Office of Belonging. He reminded the campus community of Elder David A. Bednar’s invitation to hearken to President Spencer W. Kimball’s admonition to use “gospel methodology, concepts, and insights . . . to do what the world cannot do in its own frame of reference” (Kimball, “The Second Century of Brigham Young University”; quoted in Bednar, “Look unto Me in Every Thought”). President Worthen explained how both the substance of the BYU Statement on Belonging and the process of arriving at it through counseling in councils draw on gospel methodology, concepts, and insights. He also reflected on President Kimball’s prophetic expectations for BYU to “remain a unique university in all the world” (“Installation of and Charge to the President”; emphasis added).

Clark G. Gilbert, serving as commissioner of the Church Educational System, published this essay on the fate of the religious university a few months after he gave a BYU devotional address that touched on the same topic (see “Christ’s Peace in Perilous Times,” 8 February 2022). In both pieces, he reminded BYU to hold fast to its unique mission, as so many initially religious universities have failed to do.

Elder Gilbert calls for “courageous leadership” at religiously aligned colleges and universities to maintain their religious identity. His is a clarion call not only to BYU but to all “religious universities and faith-oriented faculty to deepen their confidence in the power of religious strength identity,” which “is not only important to a religious community, but it strengthens the academy and society more generally.” Therefore, he concludes, “Do not hide your light under a bushel. . . . Dare to be different in ways that are true to your distinctive light.”

Dallin H. Oaks was serving as first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he delivered this address. As BYU approached its sesquicentennial, President Oaks and a number of BYU devotional speakers reflected on President Spencer W. Kimball’s challenge to “become a unique university in all of the world” (“The Second Century of Brigham Young University”). President Oaks’s counsel was born of long and deep observation of BYU and the American academy generally. He spoke of an experience in the 1970s when BYU broke with the educational establishment in order to assert eternal principles. He also challenged students to “dare to be different” (quoting Clark G. Gilbert, “Dare to Be Different”) from the world when the world does not follow the Lord’s way, emphasizing the principle that the second commandment (love of neighbor) does not come ahead of the first great commandment (love of God).

It may strike some as odd for President C. Shane Reese to speak of “becoming BYU” moments after receiving stewardship of the university. Is not the institution he was asked to lead already BYU? But President Reese clearly had in mind something more than BYU’s name. As President Reese said, “Our task is to become the university that prophets have foretold” (page 306). He then quoted President Spencer W. Kimball’s admonition to become “the fully anointed university of the Lord about which so much has been spoken in the past” (Kimball, “The Second Century of Brigham Young University”). “Becoming BYU” refers not just to the name of BYU but to how well BYU measures up to its prophetic potential in the eyes of God.

President Reese enumerated several dimensions of BYU’s prophetic mission, including strengthening its student-centric approach; maintaining a focus on undergraduate teaching; promoting the language of scholarship and of faith; being willing to be unique; building a covenant community; and giving priority to mission-aligned hiring. If this list feels familiar, that is as it should be. The inaugural enacts the passing of a prophetic-mission baton from one president to another.

D. Todd Christofferson was serving as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and a representative of the BYU Board of Trustees when he delivered this address. He spoke about the way a BYU president is chosen and how it is unique to the Church Educational System. As Elder Christofferson indicated, a small group of General Authorities, working closely with the First Presidency, identifies and carefully reviews potential candidates. Then, based on careful eval- uation and acting under the inspiration of Heaven, a choice is made. The process involves both rational assessment and revelation.

It must have been gratifying to President Reese, as it was to the BYU community, when Elder Christofferson testified, “As we worked with the First Presidency in this process, I can attest that all of us felt guided to Shane Reese as the person for this moment and time. Getting to know Wendy confirmed the rightness of that feeling” (page 317).

Elder Christofferson spoke of the importance of maintaining “eternal verities” in the midst of an uncertain and disunified world (page 319). He closed his remarks with a prayer, inviting all associated with the university to remember the Savior.