Stretching the Heavens: A Review

A review of "Stretching the Heavens: The Life of Eugene England and the Crisis of Modern Mormonism" by Terryl Givens.aWhen renowned rhetorician Wayne Booth attended Eugene England's Sunday School class he'd just finished listening to "an abominable sermon" during the first hour and was "so disgusted [he] was thinking seriously about getting [himself] excommunicated." Remembering, however, that England was teaching the next class, Booth stayed and later recorded: "[England's] hour was so thoughtful that I changed my mind: I'm not going to bother about getting excommunicated. In fact, I found myself thinking: any religion or culture that can produce a man like Gene, a man who can get away with unpopular, deeply thoughtful interpretations with a congregation like that, is worth belonging to" (p. 265). In the meticulously researched biography, Stretching the Heavens: The Life of Eugene England and the Crisis of Modern Mormonism, Terryl Givens examines to what extent England did, in fact, "get away with" his heaven-stretching theology.