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Review: Stretching The Heavens: The Life Of Eugene England And The Crisis Of Modern Mormonism; Eugene England: A Mormon Liberal , Terryl L. Givens, Kristine L. Haglund, Steven C. Walker, Reviewer

BYU Studies Quarterly

Kristine Haglund’s compact biography, Eugene England: A Mormon Liberal, is an illuminating contribution to the new Introduction to Mormon Thought series. Mormon Thought provides “short and accessible introductions” to those who have “shaped” the many manifestations of “Mormonism” (vii). Haglund situates England historically, as a liberal influence on a developing faith. Born 1933—the year of the deaths of old-style expansive theologians B. H. Roberts and James E. Talmage, and the same year J. Reuben Clark introduced more conservative influence in the First Presidency—Gene was caught in the collision between Mormonism’s original enthusiasm for innovative theology and the increasing rigidity of …