How Do Mormons View the Need for Education?
Personal Response by James Faulconer
From early in its history, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) have valued education. In 1832, two years after the Church’s official founding, a revelation to the first Prophet of the Church, Joseph Smith, says:
I give unto you a commandment that you shall teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom. Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand; of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms. (Doctrine and Covenants 88:77-79)
In 1843, still another revelation teaches us: “It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance” (Doctrine and Covenants 131:6).
That insistence on education does not disappear from Mormon culture. In 1888, one of the leading leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church) in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, Orson F. Whitney, says “‘With all thy getting, get understanding’ is no less a part of the ‘Mormon’ creed than it is one of the pearls of the wisdom of Solomon.” And in the present, Cecil O. Samuelson, president of the Church’s university, Brigham Young University, and among the presiding elders of the world-wide Church, delivered an address on education to women students at BYU. In that address he reminds students: “Fundamental to our theology is the notion that: “‘The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth (Doctrine and Covenants 93:36).’ A corollary doctrine is that whatever useful knowledge or understanding or wisdom or ‘principle of intelligence’ that we acquire in this life will rise with us in the resurrection. (See Doctrine and Covenants 130:18).” (See http://cpms.byu.edu/speeches/family-education-careers.)
However, as positively as Mormons view education, they recognize that education in the things of the world does not save. Salvation comes in knowing the things of God, which the Book of Mormon (alongside the Bible, one of the canonical works of the Mormon Church) identifies as: humility before God and a covenant to be obedient, baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. The Book of Mormon calls these “the doctrine of Christ” (2 Nephi 31:21). These are things that one knows by doing, and doing them is required for salvation, not worldly learning. Nevertheless, learning the things of the world and learning the things of God are both valuable, even if the latter is more valuable. Perhaps the Book of Mormon put it best, explicitly approving of learning but making it clear that the counsels of God are superior to that learning: “To be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God” (2 Nephi 9:29).
Additional Resources:
J. Reuben Clark. “The Charted Course of the Church in Education.” In J. Reuben Clark: Selected Papers on Religion, Education, and Youth, edited by David H. Yarn. Provo, Utah: BYU Press, 1984.
Spencer W. Kimball. “Education for Eternity.” Pre-school Address to Faculty and Staff, September 12, 1967. BYU Speeches of the Year 1967-1968, 1-20. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1968.
Hugh W. Nibley. Approaching Zion. Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1989.
John W. Welch & Don E. Norton. Educating Zion. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, 1996.
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