|
|
Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > General
Eugene England (1933-2001)-one of the most influential and
controversial intellectuals in modern Mormonism-lived in the
crossfire between religious tradition and reform. This first
serious biography, by leading historian Terryl Givens, shimmers
with the personal tensions felt deeply by England during the
turmoil of the late twentieth century. Drawing on unprecedented
access to England's personal papers, Givens paints a multifaceted
portrait of a devout Latter-day Saint whose precarious position on
the edge of church hierarchy was instrumental to his ability to
shape the study of modern Mormonism. A professor of literature at
Brigham Young University, England also taught in the Church
Educational System. And yet from the sixties on, he set church
leaders' teeth on edge as he protested the Vietnam War, decried
institutional racism and sexism, and supported Poland's Solidarity
movement-all at a time when Latter-day Saints were ultra-patriotic
and banned Black ordination. England could also be intemperate,
proud of his own rectitude, and neglectful of political realities
and relationships, and he was eventually forced from his academic
position. His last days, as he suffered from brain cancer, were
marked by a spiritual agony that church leaders were unable to help
him resolve.
|
|