The purpose of this thesis was to analyze and compare the influence of secular educational philosophy upon the curriculum of the seminaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.In order to do this it was necessary to review and record the development of secular educational philosophy and curriculum. This was followed by writing the development of the educational philosophy and New Testament curriculum of the seminaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Next a comparison was made of the influence of the secular philosophies and curricula upon the religious educational philosophy and the New Testament curriculum of the Church.It was found that there was a carryover of the secular influence upon those who received their background training in secular educational philosophy and curriculum development. This training greatly influenced their approach in developing the New Testament curriculum for the seminaries of the Church. Although the background training from their secular education helped them to develop the New Testament curriculum, nevertheless, after a certain amount of experience, they began to attain a measure of independence from the philosophies of the secular educators.

The establishment of Zion has been a goal of interest to every dispensation. The building of temples and participation in temple ordinances has likewise been a practice of many generations throughout history. In the present dispensation, Joseph Smith declared the need to construct temples in connection with the building of a Latter-day Zion.The purpose of this study has been to discover a correlation between temple activity and the development of the Church membership in their preparation for the establishment of Zion. It has been concluded that the temples do perform a very significant role in the development of the Latter-day Saints as a zion-people prior to their establishment of a zion-place.

The American West prior to 1800 was relatively an obscure and unexplored region. However, by 1846, it had been traversed by no less than three government expeditions, and numerous mountain men and adventurers. There was an abundance of guides, maps, and books in print by 1846 for the homeseeker traveling west of the Mississippi River.The Mormon knowledge and interest in the West began as early as 1832. Throughout the 1830's and early 1840's, as the saints moved West in the face of persecution, the Rocky Mountains were often spoken of as the future Zion of the Church. In 1842, Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church, spoke of future Mormon settlements in the Rocky Mountains, and plans were formulated to begin a movement to that region. However, the death of the Mormon prophet in June, 1844, temporarily delayed that movement. Brigham Young continued to point the Church toward the West as planned by Joseph Smith. Under his direction, the Church made an extensive study of maps and books available on the West. As the first wagons crossed the Mississippi in February, 1846, the following plans had been determined: (1) The Great Basin was to be the main headquarters of the Church. (2) And there were to be Mormon colonies at several key locations in the West, especially along the Pacific Coast.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the functions: ordinances, meetings, programs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the development of the physical plant. Inversely, the effect of Church house forms on the development of Church function was investigated. It was found that:1. In Latter-day Saint Church development, form has always followed function.2. Function has influenced form to a great extent. Priesthood, meeting, or other program needs are a prime factor in changing the form and design of Church buildings.3. Form has influenced function only insofar as the physical plant lags so far behind new programs as to make the implementation of new functions difficult.4. Function has influenced the form of Church buildings until they have become more specialized and "functional" to suit the exact purpose and need for which they have been built. Function first stimulated the creation of the form, then perfected it.

The purpose of this study was to examine certain characteristics of representative examples of visual art fostered by the Mormon Church and to arrive at an estimate of the aesthetic values of these works by a comparative analysis with aesthetic values stressed in the literature.Representative examples of Mormon art were examined to determine their primary purposes and themes. Each work considered was classified according to the following primary categories developed in a preliminary survey: (1) History Glorification, (2) Depiction of Moral Models, (3) Scriptural Teaching, and (4) Aesthetic Purpose.The representative examples were analyzed for their stylistic qualities to determine the types represented and were classified according to the following primary categories: (1) Realism, (2) Illusionism, (3) Idealism, (4) Popular Romanticism, and (5) Stylization.An estimate was made of the aesthetic value of these works by measuring the above findings against such points of judgment as were cited by critics in the art literature.

The history of Mormonism reveals that almost from its beginning, the new church was to be not only a basis for an ecclesiastical Kingdom of God but for a temporal Kingdom as well. This temporal Kingdom, never fully realized, was to develop into a political state preparatory to the inauguration of the Apocalyptic Kingdom. Ultimately, this Kingdom was to rule the whole world.Theory and practice did not always merge in the organization and administration of this Kingdom. When Joseph Smith organized the nucleus of a political government for the Kingdom of God in 1844 it became rather obvious that the separation between the political and the ecclesiastical Kingdom was rather theoretical; the leading officers of both organizations were identical.The Council of Fifty, as this embryo world government was most generally called, actively worked to bring about the political Kingdom of God. In response to its immediate cause for organization, the Council explored the possibilities for relocating the Saints in an uninhabited region where they might build the Kingdom without interference. After the untimely death of Joseph Smith it was this Council which organized and directed the exodus of the Saints to the West.

Public educators are using drop-out studies as a means of improving the curriculum and increasing the holding power of the schools. The public educators are attempting to prepare man for life and the religious educators are attempting to prepare man for eternity. There have been many studies concerning the public school drop-outs, but this is the first one concerning seminary drop-outs.The purpose of this study has been to determine why some students drop-out of seminary before graduation. After learning the reasons for the students dropping out, it is important that changes be made to increase the enrollment and holding power of the seminary program.This study included seminary drop-outs in twelve of the seminaries in the State of Utah. The students were enrolled in the adjacent high school during the 1960-61 school year, but were not enrolled in the seminary. There were 210 students in the study and all of them were sent questionnaires. Of these, 125 (about 60 per cent) were returned.

The agricultural village was the basis of the original economy of Utah established by the Mormon settlers, but it has since been supplanted in importance by the industrial and commercial activities of the large centers of the Wasatch Front counties of Salt Lake, Weber, and Utah. This study was conducted in an attempt to determine the future of those communities removed from industrialized northern Utah. The village of Meadow, Millard County, was chosen as an example and it was subjected to a detailed geographic analysis. From this analysis conclusions have been drawn regarding its future.

It was felt that if the interests and concerns of seminary students could be determined in relationship to the curriculum guides of the LDS Seminary System, curricula could be constructed better to meet the needs of the seminary studentsThe purpose of the study was to determine what the interests and concerns of LDS Seminary students were in relationship to the objectives used in developing the curriculum of the LDS Seminary System.Opinions as to the interests and concerns of LDS senior seminary students were solicited as the source of data in carrying out this study. An instrument was constructed for the purpose of securing the data and was called the Student Inventory. The Student Inventory was constructed by obtaining the statements of the interests and concerns of the students in relationship to the Thirty-five Directional Objectives used to develop the seminary curriculum.

There was a lack of concrete information concerning the influence of the ward education committee on enrolling students in seminary. Therefore, a study which would evaluate the influence of ward education committees on seminary enrollment was undertaken. This study attempted to determine the influence of ward education committees on enrollment of non-released time seminaries.