Learning About The World At 40

In the winter months of December 1832 and January 1833, the nascent Church of Christ¹ was in trouble. While the Church in Kirtland seemed to be doing well, the Saints settling in Jackson County, Missouri, were becoming increasingly uneasy with Joseph Smith’s leadership. Joseph feared that “if they did not repent and restore harmony... , they could lose their inheritances in Zion and forfeit their chance to build the temple.”² In addition, uncertainty regarding conflicts emerging in the United States troubled the Prophet.

On December 27, Joseph met with other Church leaders to try to discern God’s will on how they should proceed, especially with regard to building Zion. As they prayed, Joseph received a revelation that he termed “the olive leaf... plucked from the tree of Paradise.”³ This remarkable document, which provides detailed instruction on many topics, includes a “commandment” that the Saints establish a school (which would become the School of the Prophets) to “teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom . . . in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand.”⁴ The Lord then lists some of these “things that pertain unto the kingdom of God,” and one wonders if that list caused a bit of a shock. It was not limited to Biblical studies and theology but included

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. [5]

Did some of the people first hearing the revelation wonder why they should study, say, “the wars and the perplexities of the nations” when there were such pressing issues close to home? But perhaps even more surprising is the reason for this wide-ranging study: “That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you.”⁶

Similarly, just a few months later, on 8 March 1833, Joseph received a revelation directed to him and the other members of the First Presidency of the Church. Among other commandments and counsel, they are instructed to “study and learn, and become acquainted with all good books, and with languages, tongues, and people.”⁷ Education, the Lord tells us, is crucial to our ability to serve.

Looking back over the history of the Church, these revelations are not surprising. Whenever the Saints settled down long enough, they made plans for a university. Clearly, education was crucially important to the early Saints and to the Lord.

In our own day, the remarkable generosity of the Church toward BYU and the other schools in the Church Educational System should be evidence enough that the Church follows the principles laid down in the “olive leaf” and in section 90 to prepare current Saints to receive the education needed to magnify any callings they will receive.

As a scholar of the European Renaissance, I am intrigued by the fact that the list of subjects found in section 88 overlaps in intriguing ways with the concerns of the group of Renaissance educators known as humanists. These teachers and writers wanted to move on from the medieval system of education, which they found to be overly technical and removed from the concerns of daily life, toward a curriculum that would train their students to contribute to and act in the world.⁸ This new system of education gradually became the standard university curriculum and laid the basis for what we often think of as general education or an education in the liberal arts.⁹

In recent years, general education of the kind championed by the humanists and as detailed in sections 88 and 90 has come under attack as being impractical—not leading to direct economic benefits for the student or for the community and state in which a university or school is situated. Just this past year, for example, the Utah State Legislature passed HB265, directing state colleges and universities to “reallocate funding to programs with enough student interest and that align with today’s market demands.”¹⁰ As a reporter summarized the views of one legislator nervous about the bill, “There’s danger in blurring the lines between industry-alignment training and what it means to gain a university education.”¹¹

However, BYU and the Kennedy Center have not backed away from the importance of general education and the educational vision found in the olive leaf revelation. In his remarks at the inauguration of the Kennedy Center, President Jeffrey R. Holland noted that “there is a great need in our world for the examination and understanding of cultures and societies and languages and peoples other than one’s own, including the religious, moral, and aesthetic aspects of life,” and he tied that need directly to sections 88 and 90 of the Doctrine and Covenants.¹² Indeed, throughout this issue, you will see these passages of scripture referred to frequently, as they underlie the vision of education put forward in the Aims of a BYU Education, which are that students should receive an education that is spiritually strengthening, intellectually enlarging, and character building and leads to lifelong learning and service.¹³ Of course, preparing students for a career after graduation is important, but the revelations in sections 88 and 90 of the Doctrine and Covenants show that an education at BYU should do more than that.

In many ways, David Kennedy—the person for whom the center is named—exemplifies the vision and values that inspire us here. Born in a small agricultural town in northern Utah, Kennedy’s career took him throughout the world as he pursued a life of continuous learning and service.¹⁴ I am constantly impressed by the students at the Center who in their own way are following David Kennedy’s example as they pursue their passion to understand the world and ultimately to help make it a better place. Many of them come to the Kennedy Center to pursue a major or minor or to participate in one of our many study abroad programs after they have served a mission for the Church. They came to love the people they served on their missions, and now they seek to understand them and their place in the world more fully.

Of course, the verses from sections 88 and 90, as well as the Aims of a BYU Education,
continue to be aspirational. The vision of education that the Lord set forth was an instrumental reason for the founding of the David M. Kennedy Center forty years ago, and it continues to inspire and guide us as we seek to implement that vision in our academic programs as well as in the study abroad programs we help to facilitate for programs across campus. For us, education is more than job training and cannot simply be measured by dollars and cents; it must equip students to live and act in the world and, most importantly, it should prepare them to magnify any callings they may receive as members and leaders in an increasingly global Church.

V. Stanley Benfell was named director of the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies and associate international vice president of BYU in 2021. He is a professor of comparative literature and received PhD and MA degrees in comparative literature from New York University and a BA from BYU. Previous assignments include chair of the Department of Comparative Arts and Letters, coordinator of the European Studies program, and associate director of the Kennedy Center. He has codirected or directed five study abroad programs at BYU’s London Centre.