The Lord’s University: Freedom and Authority at BYU

from the publisher:
If church-sponsored universities exist to instill faith in God and commitment to religion, then Brigham Young University deserves high marks. But in protecting �the Lord�s University� from secularized morals, feminism, the emergence of an independent Mormon intellectual community, and the liberal side of American �culture wars,� the school has also defended its right to restrict free speech, freedom of the press, the right to assemble, and due process for faculty and students. With cultural conservatives nationally, the school believes that its institutional right to religious liberty supercedes the individual freedom of conscience and inquiry that traditionally characterizes university life.

In charting the struggle between academics and religion, authors Bryan Waterman and Brian Kagel have assembled a vast archive of official documents and private interviews covering all sides of the issues. They chronicle day-to-day events�administrative meetings, disciplinary hearings, student rallies, behind-the scenes faculty debates, private conversations, and P.R. posturing�in a provocative history of two decades of turmoil at the nation�s largest religious university.

Bryan Waterman, a Ph.D. candidate in American studies at Boston University, is the former editor of the BYU Student Review, former associate editor of Sunstone, guest editor for a special student issue of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, editor of The Prophet Puzzle: Interpretive Essays on Joseph Smith, and co-author of The Lord’s University: Freedom and Authority at BYU. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife and children.

Brian Kagel, a graduate student in journalism at the University of North Texas, is the former editor of BYU’s Daily Universe, former managing editor of Sunstone, and co-author of The Lord’s University: Freedom and Authority at BYU. He is currently an Online Communications Consultant for Blue Cross Blue Shield and lives with his family in Dallas, Texas.