Joseph F. Merrill served as Church Commissioner of Education from 1928 to 1933, an era critical in the development of Latter-day Saint Education. During his tenure as commissioner several key developments occurred in Church education, among them the closing of most of the remaining Church academies, transfer of nearly all of Church junior colleges to State control, rapid expansion of the Church seminary system, and establishment of the first LDS Institutes of Religion. Merrill also initiated new efforts to encourage LDS educators to seek graduate-level education outside of Utah, and to bring religious scholarship to the teachers of the Church. In addition, during this time attempts were made by forces outside the Church to seriously curtail the continuation of the seminary program, if not to eliminate it entirely. Merrill's efforts were crucial in ensuring the survival and ultimate acceptance of this form of religious education. This study is intended to answer the following research questions: 1. What were the contributions of Joseph F. Merrill as Church Commissioner of Education? 2. How can the lessons from Merrill's administration be applied to the challenges facing Church education today? The first chapter of this thesis is intended to provide the necessary historical back to understand the events which took place during the Merrill tenure. Particular attention is paid to the work of Merrill's predecessor, Adam S. Bennion. Chapter two provides the historical background to understand Merrill's background before he was called as commissioner. The “Beginning of Institute" chapter explores the creation of the Latter-day Saint Institutes of religion. Next, the “Continuing the Transformation of Church Education" explores the decision to close or attempt to transfer to state control the junior colleges owned by the Church during this time. With the transfer of most of the Church colleges underway by the early 1930s, Church education found itself dependent on the work of seminaries and institutes. “The Released Time Seminary Crisis of 1930-31" chapter details the effects made by the report of the state high school inspector, I. L. Williamson, on seminary and Merrill's work to defend the legality of the seminary system. Next, “Joseph F. Merrill and Religious Educators" will document Merrill's dealings with the teachers who served under him as commissioner. Attention is devoted here to the effects of the Depression on Church education, as well as an account of the LDS educational venture with the University of Chicago Divinity school in the 1930s. Finally, the “Conclusions" chapter explains Merrill's departure from the office to serve as president of the European Mission. This chapter will also offer summary answers to the major research questions, and suggestions for future study The overall intent of this study is to shed light on the contributions of Joseph F. Merrill to Latter-day Saint education. It is not intended as a full biographical work, but simply focuses on his service as commissioner, with occasional ventures into other periods as necessary. It is hoped the reader will emerge with a greater understanding of this important era in Church history, as well as an improved vision of the divine hand guiding the fate of the Church.

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Chicago occupies a place in the American imagination as a city of industry and opportunity for those who are willing to hustle. Writers have in no small part contributed to the creation of this mythology; this canon includes Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser, Upton Sinclair, Carl Sandburg, and Richard Wright. What is it about these authors that make them the classics of Chicago literature? The “essential” books of Chicago enshrine a period during which the city still held a prominent position in the national economy and culture, and embodied for Americans something of their own identity—the value of individualism, and the Protestant work ethic. Notably absent are the narratives from immigrants, particularly those of color: for a city that was a primary destination for the Great Migration of African Americans from the South and the concurrent immigration of Mexicans in the early part of the 20th century, it is remarkable that these stories have not gained significant attention, with the exception of Richard Wright’s. This dissertation interrogates the discourse of ambition and labor in the Chicago literary tradition from the perspective of three Mexican American authors from Chicago—Carlos Cortez, Ana Castillo, and Sandra Cisneros. These authors, faced with late 20th century deindustrialization and the enduring legacy of segregation, engage with the canonical narratives of Chicago by addressing the intersections of race and citizenship as they affect urban space and labor opportunities. Rather than simply offering a critique, however, the Mexican American authors engage in a re-visioning of the city that incorporates the complexities of a fluid, transnational experience, and in doing so suggest the future of urban life in a post-industrial America. / text

This study explores the struggle of the Catholic Church to be true to itself and its mission in the midst of other religions, in the context of the non-Catholic American culture, and in relation to the modern world and its discontents. As milestones of the global interfaith movement, American religious freedom and pluralism, and of the relation of religion to modernity, the Chicago Parliaments of Religions offer a unique window through which to view this Catholic struggle at work in the religious public square created by the Parliaments and the evolution of that struggle over the course of the century framed by the two Chicago events. In relation to other religions, the Catholic Church stretched itself from an exclusivist position of being the only true and good religion to an inclusivist position of recognizing that truth and good can be present in other religions. Uniquely, Catholic involvement in the centennial Parliament made the Church stretch itself even further, beyond the exclusivist-inclusivist spectrum into a pluralist framework in which the Church acted humbly as one religion among many. In relation to American culture, the Catholic Church stretched itself from a Eurocentric and monarchic worldview with claims of Catholic supremacy to the American alternative of democracy, religious freedom, and the separation of church and state. In relation to modernity, the Church stretched itself from viewing the modern world as an enemy to be fought and conquered to befriending modernity and designing some specific accommodations to it. In these three relationships, there was indeed a shift, but not at all a clean break. Instead a stretch occurred, acknowledging a lived intra-Catholic tension between religious exclusivism and inclusivism, between a universal Catholic identity and Catholic inculturation in America (and in other cultures), and between the immutability of Catholic eternal truths and their translatability into the new languages offered by the modern world. In all this the Second Vatican Council was the major catalyst. For all three cases the Chicago Parliaments of Religions serve as environments conducive to the raising of important questions about Catholic identity, the Catholic understanding of non-Catholics, and Catholic interfaith relations.

This study explores the struggle of the Catholic Church to be true to itself and its mission in the midst of other religions, in the context of the non-Catholic American culture, and in relation to the modern world and its discontents. As milestones of the global interfaith movement, American religious freedom and pluralism, and of the relation of religion to modernity, the Chicago Parliaments of Religions offer a unique window through which to view this Catholic struggle at work in the religious public square created by the Parliaments and the evolution of that struggle over the course of the century framed by the two Chicago events. In relation to other religions, the Catholic Church stretched itself from an exclusivist position of being the only true and good religion to an inclusivist position of recognizing that truth and good can be present in other religions. Uniquely, Catholic involvement in the centennial Parliament made the Church stretch itself even further, beyond the exclusivist-inclusivist spectrum into a pluralist framework in which the Church acted humbly as one religion among many. In relation to American culture, the Catholic Church stretched itself from a Eurocentric and monarchic worldview with claims of Catholic supremacy to the American alternative of democracy, religious freedom, and the separation of church and state. In relation to modernity, the Church stretched itself from viewing the modern world as an enemy to be fought and conquered to befriending modernity and designing some specific accommodations to it. In these three relationships, there was indeed a shift, but not at all a clean break. Instead a stretch occurred, acknowledging a lived intra-Catholic tension between religious exclusivism and inclusivism, between a universal Catholic identity and Catholic inculturation in America (and in other cultures), and between the immutability of Catholic eternal truths and their translatability into the new languages offered by the modern world. In all this the Second Vatican Council was the major catalyst. For all three cases the Chicago Parliaments of Religions serve as environments conducive to the raising of important questions about Catholic identity, the Catholic understanding of non-Catholics, and Catholic interfaith relations.