L. Jackson Newell

L. Jackson Newell (born October 11, 1938) is an American historian and philosopher of higher education, specializing in the study and leadership of progressive colleges from Antioch College and Berea College prior to the Civil War through the new wave taking root in the early 2020s, including Outer Coast College, Thoreau College, and the Tidelines Institute.Newell has been married to author and artist Linda King Newell for over fifty years. Newell and his wife edited the independent scholarly journal, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought in the 1980s, publishing the work of D. Michael Quinn and championing independent scholarship and freedom of conscience within that religious culture.[17][18][19] Newell chronicled his withdrawal from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in an autobiographical essay published in 2006. [20] A second autobiographical essay in his "En Route" series, about his evolving philosophy of education, was published in Contemporary Philosophical Proposals for the University in 2018.[21]

Personal Conscience and Priesthood Authority

Articles/Essays – Volume 13, No. 4

From the teachings of its founder, Joseph Smith, down to the present time, Mormon doctrine has recognized two complementary, though sometimes competing, sources of authority in personal affairs. Through one source, the priesthood hierarchy, Latter-day…

The Intellectual in the Service of the Faith?: Some Propositions to Consider

Articles/Essays – Volume 18, No. 1

There are different ways to look at the world; and faith and reason provide contrasting, sometimes complementary perspectives. Faithful people who equate their spirituality with Church loyalty often find themselves at odds with those who…

The Secular Side of the Saints | Robert Gottlieb and Peter Wiley, America’s Saints: The Rise of Mormon Power

Articles/Essays – Volume 18, No. 4

It wasn’t written primarily for a Mormon audience. And it wasn’t expected to sell well in Salt Lake City. But Bob Gottlieb and Peter Wiley, both outsiders to the LDS Church and to Utah, have…

An Echo from the Foothills: To Marshal the Forces of Reason

Articles/Essays – Volume 19, No. 1

I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. —Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Benjamin Rush, 1800 I offer here a personal response to the increasingly stern demands…

Dialogue’s Coming of Age

Articles/Essays – Volume 20, No. 1

DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT begins both its twentieth volume and its twenty-first year with the publication of this issue. Launched in 1966 as a daring and earnest effort to transform the serious conversation of…

Reflections from Within: A Conversation with Linda King Newell and L. Jackson Newell

Articles/Essays – Volume 20, No. 4

After serving five and a half years, Linda and Jack Newell step down as editors of DIALOGUE as this issue goes to press, turning the editorship over to Kay and Ross Peterson of Logan, Utah.…

Liberal Spirituality: A Personal Odyssey

Articles/Essays – Volume 26, No. 1

“Liberal spirituality” is the title and theme of this essay. A double entendre is intended—suggesting the interdependence of a free and abundant spiritual life. My aim is to explore the nature and possibilities of liberal spirituality by reflecting on some of the key experiences and major ideas that have shaped my philosophy. I am concerned here with the essential values at the core of religious experience, a state of mind and an approach to life. The Mormon church has been but one of the anvils against which I have forged my identity.

Sterling Moss McMurrin: A Philosopher in Action

Articles/Essays – Volume 28, No. 1

Sterling M. McMurrin, a man of letters, has spent most of his life in the world of affairs. A distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of Utah for four decades, he held key academic…

En Route: A Journey of the Spirit

Articles/Essays – Volume 39, No. 4

In the introduction to his epic short story, “A River Runs Through It,” Norman Maclean wrote that his primary aim was to let his “children know what kind of people their parents are or think they are or hope they are.” This sentiment captured my initial purpose in crafting this essay. Dealing chiefly with my evolving spiritual life, it is the story of a youth whose extended family took religion seriously, even seriously enough to live peaceably with its great diversity of belief; it is the tale of a free spirit butting heads with a tightly disciplined institution; and it is the record of a family spiritual legacy, one noticeably different in beliefs and loyalties than the typical Latter-day Saint has come to know and cherish through his or her heritage.