Educating the Saints Hugh W. Nibley
In "Higher Education" the traffic titles and forms are already long established: The office with its hoarded files of scoresheets, punched cards, and tapes can declare exactly how educated any individual is—even to the third decimal. That is the highly structured busywork which we call education today; but it was not Brigham Young's idea of education. He had thoughts which we have repeated from time to time with very mixed reception on the BYU campus. Still we do not feel in the least inclined to apologize for propagating them on the premises of a university whose main distinction is that it bears his name.
Brigham Young's declaration that "every art and science known and studied by the children of men is comprised within the Gospel."82 But this does not mean, as is commonly assumed, that anything one chooses to teach is the gospel—that would be as silly as arguing that since all things are made of electrons, protons, neutrons, etc., whenever anyone opens his mouth to speak he gives a lecture on physics. It means rather that all things may be studied and taught in the light of the gospel: "If an Elder shall give us a lecture upon astronomy, chemistry, or geology, our religion embraces it all. It matters not what the subject be, if it tends to improve the mind, exalt the feelings, and enlarge the capacity."83 It would be quite impossible to improve the mind, exalt the feelings and enlarge the capacity of any man without making him a better candidate for heaven—"it matters not what the subject be."84 By the same token, the reading of the scriptures if not undertaken in that spirit does not belong to our religion: " 'Shall I sit down and read the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Covenants all the time?' says one. Yes, if you please, and when you have done, you may be nothing but a sectarian after all. It is your duty to study . . . everything upon the face of the earth, in addition to reading those books."85
It is perfectly natural for the young who discover the world of scholarship for the first time to strike in their sophomoric zeal an intellectual pose, rail in high terms against the Church that has kept them in darkness all these years, and catalogue the defects and miscalculations of the prophets in the light of their own scholarly elevation. That is perfectly natural, and if we had heeded Brigham Young, the urge to study and criticize would be running in fruitful channels. Whether we like it or not, we are going to have to return to Brigham Young's ideals of education; we may fight it all the way, but in the end God will keep us after school until we learn our lesson: "Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me. But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right" (D&C 9:7–8).
