McMurrin was E. E. Ericksen Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah and U.S. Commissioner of Education under President John F. Kennedy. Of his nine books, Theological Foundations is considered his masterpiece. The present edition includes his earlier essay, "The Philosophical Foundations of Mormon Theology," with a biographical introduction by Deep Springs College president L. Jackson Newell and a glossary of terms by Dr. McMurrin's daughter, Trudy McMurrin.

Sterling M. McMurrin was Academic Vice President and dean of the graduate school at the University of Utah, a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and the Union Theological Seminary, and a Ford Fellow in philosophy at Princeton. In addition to being U.S. Commissioner of Education (see above), he served as US Envoy to Iran. He contributed to The Autobiography of B. H. Roberts and Memories and Reflections.

L. Jackson Newell is the former dean of Liberal Education at the University of Utah. He is the co-author of Creating Distinctiveness, Matters of Conscience, and A Study of Professors; a contributor to Neither White nor Black; Personal Voices; Religion, Feminism, and Freedom of Conscience; and The Wilderness of Faith; and is a past coeditor of Dialogue. He has received the CASE Professor of the Year and Joseph Katz Distinguished Leadership in Education awards. Currently he is president of Deep Springs College.