1. Boyd K. Packer, That All May Edified (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982), 43.

2. Major sources for this study were the papers of Church teachers who attended the University of Chicago’s School of Divinity in the 1930s. Valuable collections include the papers of Russel B. Swensen, Sidney B. Sperry, and J. Reuben Clark, all located in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. The extensive collection of T. Edgar Lyon, which also provides a valuable window into this period, are located in Perry Special Collections and in the Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. The massive collection of Sterling McMurrin, located at Special Collections in the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, also provided a wealth of correspondence and documentation. In addition, the Everett L. Cooley oral history project, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, contains several interviews with Church teachers from this period, most notably Heber C. Snell. The papers of George S. Tanner, housed in Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, were also helpful. The massive papers of Heber C. Snell, located in the Special Collections of the Merrill-Cazier Library at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, contain a copious documentation of the battles fought over orthodoxy in the Church Educational System during this time. Also contained in Special Collections, Merrill-Cazier Library, are the papers of Daryl Chase, which provided valuable context. My deepest gratitude goes to the staff of all of these great institutions who were tremendously helpful in this project. In addition, several colleagues, most notably Perry Montoya and Paul Murphy, reviewed early manuscripts and made invaluable suggestions.

3. The modernist-fundamentalist controversy raged throughout the early twentieth century, probably reaching its apex with the famous 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial” in Dayton, Tennessee, where William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow battled over whether the teaching of evolution in schools undermined traditional faith in the Bible. The famous event was later commemorated in the play and film Inherit the Wind. For a good summary of the conflict, see Controversy in the Twenties: Fundamentalism, Modernism, and Evolution, ed. William B. Gatewood Jr. (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1969), and to a lesser extent, Norman F. Furniss, The Fundamentalist Controversy, 1918–1931 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954).

4. See Milton Lynn Bennion, Mormonism and Education (Salt Lake City: The Department of Education of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1939), 175–202.

5. Gary James Bergera and Ronald Priddis, Brigham Young University: A House of Faith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1985), 53.

6. Brigham Young University: The First Hundred Years, ed. Ernest L. Wilkinson, 4 vols. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1975), 2:286; see also Mary Jane Woodger and Joseph H. Groberg, From the Muddy River to the Ivory Tower: The Journey of George H. Brimhall (Provo, Utah: BYU Studies, 2010), 131–33.

7. Kenneth G. Bell, “Adam Samuel Bennion: Superintendent of LDS Education: 1919–1928” (master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1969), 75–81.

8. See William E. Berrett, “My Story,” unpublished manuscript, 1974, Perry Special Collections, 37–38.

9. Bell, “Adam S. Bennion,” 80.

10. David H. Yarn, “Sidney Sperry Reminiscence,” in They Gladly Taught: Ten BYU Professors, ed. Jean Anne Waterstradt, 3 vols. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University and the Emeritus Club, 1986–88), 1:160.

11. “Summer School Announcement,” Brigham Young University Quarterly 24, no. 3 (1928): 43.

12. “Summer School Announcement,” Brigham Young University Quarterly 25, no. 3 (1929): 43.

13. Russel B. Swensen, “Mormons at the University of Chicago Divinity School,” Dialogue 7, no. 2 (Summer 1972): 40.

14. T. Edgar Lyon Jr., T. Edgar Lyon: A Teacher in Zion (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press), 2002, 115.

15. Swensen, “Mormons at the Chicago Divinity School,” 40.

16. Dedication of the Joseph F. Merrill Engineering Building, program, University of Utah, February 26, 1960, 1, Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City. See also Alan K. Parrish, John A. Widtsoe (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003), 117. John A. Widtsoe was studying in Germany at the same time, completing his work a few months after Merrill. The author has been unable to verify if Merrill was the first Utahn to earn a PhD, though in the program cited, which was produced by the University of Utah in conjunction with the dedication of the Joseph F. Merrill Engineering Building, he was recognized as such. For other information on Merrill’s education background, see Richard R. Lyman, “Dr. Joseph F. Merrill of the Council of the Twelve,” Improvement Era 35 (November 1931): 9–10; Bryant S. Hinckley, “Greatness in Men: Joseph F. Merrill,” Improvement Era 36 (December 1932): 74–77, 121; and Gordon B. Hinckley, “Passing of Elder Joseph F. Merrill,” Improvement Era 55 (March 1952): 144–47, 203–4.

17. T. Edgar Lyon, oral history, interview by Davis Bitton, November 18 and 15, December 2, 9, 16, and 30, 1974; and January 6, 13, 20, 1975, Salt Lake City, Lyon Collection, 93, Perry Special Collections.

18. T. Edgar Lyon, interview by Frederick S. Buchanan and Marshal B. Poulson, February 7, 1973, 13–14, 28, Perry Special Collections.

19. Russel B. Swensen, The Joint Oral History Project of Brigham Young University Archives, BYU Alumni Association Emeritus Club, and Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, interview by Mark K. Allen, September 13, 1978, 9, Perry Special Collections.

20. James R. Clark, “Church and State Relationships in Education in Utah” (PhD diss., Utah State University, 1958), 441.

21. Minutes, February 20, 1929, Minutes of the General Church Board of Education, found in William E. Berrett, CES History Resource Files, 1899–1985, Church History Library.

22. See Dennis A. Wright, “The Beginnings of the First LDS Institute of Religion at Moscow, Idaho,” Mormon Historical Studies 10 (Spring 2009): 65–84. See also Joseph F. Merrill, “LDS Institutes and Why,” Improvement Era 32 (December 1929): 135–37; and J. Wyley Sessions, “The Latter-day Saint Institutes,” Improvement Era 38 (July 1935): 412–15.

23. “Seminaries of LDS Church Put under Study,” Salt Lake Tribune, January 9, 1930, 14–15.

24. “Seminaries of LDS Church Put under Study,” 14–15.

25. Joseph F. Merrill to all seminary teachers, October 1, 1928, Salt Lake City, George A. Brimhall papers, Perry Special Collections.

26. William E. Berrett and Alma P. Burton, Readings in LDS Church History from Original Manuscripts, 3 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1958), 3:341–42.

27. Wilkinson, First Hundred Years, 2:219.

28. Church General Board of Education, Minutes, February 5 and March 5, 1930, Church History Library; copies in possession of the author.

29. Joseph F. Merrill to E. J. Call, G. L. Luke, and W. V. Halverson, April 18, 1931, Sydney B. Sperry Collection, Perry Special Collections.

30. Joseph F. Merrill to Russel B. Swensen, March 10, 1930, Russel B. Swensen Collection, Perry Special Collections.

31. Swenson, oral history, 11.

32. Edgar J. Goodspeed, The Goodspeed Parallel New Testament (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1943), 534.

33. Edgar J. Goodspeed, The Story of the Bible (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1936), 24.

34. Charles Harvey Arnold, Near the Edge of Battle: A Short History of the Divinity School and the “Chicago School of Theology,” 1866–1966, (Chicago: The Divinity School Association, 1966), 34.

35. Arnold, Near the Edge of Battle, 59.

36. Swensen, oral history, 11.

37. See Shailer Mathews, The Faith of Modernism (New York: AMS Press, 1924, 1969).

38. William J. Hynes, Shirley Jackson Case and the Chicago School: The Socio-Historical Method (Chico, Calif.: Society of Biblical Literature Centennial Press, 1980), ix.

39. Lyon, Teacher in Zion, 132.

40. Philip L. Barlow, Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 129–34.

41. James M. McLachlan, “W. H. Chamberlin and the Quest for a Mormon Theology,” Dialogue 29, no. 4 (Winter 1996): 154–55. McLachlan also notes that in 1921, while on his deathbed, W. H. Chamberlin “received word . . . that he had been chosen to teach religion in the summer school at BYU. . . . Five years after Chamberlin’s death, attitudes in the church had changed. Apostle David O. McKay wrote to Ralph V. Chamberlin [William’s brother] in a letter dated 17 February 1926: ‘That a lofty, sincere soul like W. H. Chamberlin’s should have been compelled to struggle in our community and to have been misunderstood by those who should have known him best, seems to me to be nothing short of a tragedy.’”

42. George Shepherd Tanner, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Oral History Program, interview by Davis Bitton, Salt Lake City, August 24, 1972, 11, Church History Library.

43. Swensen, oral history, 10, Swensen, “Mormons at the Chicago Divinity School,” 40.

44. Joseph F. Merrill to Russel B. Swensen, July 21, 1930, Swensen Collection.

45. Swensen, “Mormons at the Chicago Divinity School,” 41.

46. Tanner, oral history, 10.

47. Russel B. Swensen to Swen L. Swensen, December 19, 1932, Swensen Collection.

48. Swensen, “Mormons at the Chicago Divinity School,” 42.

49. Russel B. Swensen to Swen L. Swensen, March 2, 1931, Swensen Collection.

50. Sidney B. Sperry to Russel B. Swensen, November 20, 1930, Swensen Collection.

51. Swensen, “Mormons at the Chicago Divinity School,” 40.

52. Tanner, oral history, 12–13.

53. Swensen, “Mormons at the Chicago Divinity School,” 40.

54. Swensen, “Mormons at the Chicago Divinity School,” 42.

55. Russel B. Swensen to Swen L. Swensen, September 21, no year (circa 1931), Swensen Collection.

56. Tanner, oral history, 11–12.

57. Russel B. Swensen to Swen L. Swensen, December 10, 1931, Swensen Collection. The “dean” Swensen is most likely referring to is Shailer Mathews, the dean of the Chicago Divinity School.

58. Russel B. Swensen to Swen L. Swensen, January 28, 1933, Swensen Collection.

59. T. Edgar Lyon to parents, August 21, 1931, T. Edgar Lyon Collection, Church History Library, cited in Lyon, Teacher in Zion, 131.

60. T. Edgar Lyon to parents, August 21, 1931, cited in Lyon, Teacher in Zion, 131, punctuation modernized.

61. Shailer Mathews, The Growth of the Idea of God (New York: MacMillan, 1931), 219.

62. Mathews, Growth of the Idea of God, 219.

63. T. Edgar Lyon to parents, August 21, 1931, cited in Lyon, Teacher in Zion, 132. Lyon probably has reference here to Ralph Chamberlin, Joseph Peterson, and Henry Peterson, three BYU professors dismissed by the Church in 1911 after publicly teaching controversial concepts at BYU. William H. Chamberlin, also censured during this time had received training in ancient languages and biblical studies at the University of Chicago. See Wilkinson, First Hundred Years, 1:412–32; see also Barlow, Mormons and the Bible, 129–34.

64. Tanner, oral history, 12.

65. Russel B. Swensen to George S. Tanner, December 31, 1931, Swensen Collection.

66. Russel B. Swensen to George S. Tanner, December 31, 1931.

67. Swensen, oral history, 12; Swensen, “Mormons at the Chicago Divinity School,” 44.

68. Swensen, “Mormons at the Chicago Divinity School,” 44.

69. Tanner, oral history, 13.

70. Tanner, oral history, 13.

71. Lyon, Teacher in Zion, 136. Those who earned degrees included Anthony S. Cannon, Daryl Chase, Carl J. Furr, Therald N. Jensen, Vernon Larsen, Wesley P. Lloyd, T. Edgar Lyon, Heber C. Snell, Sidney B. Sperry, Russel B. Swensen, and George S. Tanner. See Lyon Jr., Teacher in Zion, 143.

72. Wilkinson, First Hundred Years, 2:288.

73. Vernon F. Larsen, “The Life and Times of Vernon F. Larsen,” unpublished document, 5:42, Church History Library.

74. Lyon, oral history, 101.

75. Swensen, “Mormons at the Chicago Divinity School,” 44.

76. Larsen, “Life and Times,” 52.

77. Daryl Chase to Russel B. Swensen, undated letter (ca. 1933), Swensen Collection.

78. Daryl Chase to T. Edgar Lyon, February 18, 1933, Lyon Collection.

79. Carl Furr to Russel B. Swensen, April 3, 1934, Swensen Collection.

80. Carl Furr to Russel B. Swensen, April 3, 1934.

81. Carl Furr to Russel B. Swensen, April 3, 1934.

82. Carl Furr to Russel B. Swensen, April 3, 1934.

83. Daryl Chase to Russel B. Swensen, ca. 1933.

84. Barlow, Mormons and the Bible, 140.

85. Heber C. Snell, “Criteria for Interpreting the Old Testament to College Youth,” Through the Years: Occasional Writings of Heber C. Snell (Logan, Utah: Merrill Library, 1969), 95–97.

86. Joseph Fielding Smith to Franklin L. West, March 11, 1937, cited in Richard Sherlock, “Faith and History: The Snell Controversy,” Dialogue 12, no. 1 (Spring 1979): 27, 38.

87. J. Reuben Clark, “The Charted Course of the Church in Education,” in J. Reuben Clark: Selected Papers, ed. David H. Yard Jr. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1984), 251–52.

88. Clark, “Charted Course,” 254.

89. Sterling M. McMurrin and L. Jackson Newell, Matters of Conscience: Conversations with Sterling M. McMurrin on Philosophy, Education, and Religion (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996), 115.

90. McMurrin and Newell, Matters of Conscience, 115.

91. N. L. Nelson to J. Reuben Clark Jr., September 2, 1938, Clark Papers, cited in Scott C. Esplin, “Charting the Course: President Clark’s Charge to Religious Educators,” Religious Educator 7, no. 1 (2006): 107, 117.

92. J. Reuben Clark to William T. Tew Jr., September 22, 1938, Clark Papers.

93. J. Reuben Clark to R. K. Bischoff, September 8, 1938, Clark Papers.

94. Joseph Fielding Smith to J. Reuben Clark, August 15, 1938, Clark Papers.

95. Joseph S. Peery to J. Reuben Clark, August 16, 1938, Clark Papers. At the time this letter was written, Peery was serving as the manager of the Temple Square Bureau of Information.

96. S. O. Bennion to J. Reuben Clark, August 15, 1938, Clark Papers.

97. J. Reuben Clark to S. O. Bennion, August 20, 1938, Clark Papers.

98. J. Reuben Clark, Diary, January 23, 1939, 62, Clark Papers.

99. Clark, Office Journal, January 23, 1939, 63.

100. Sidney B. Sperry to John A. Widtsoe, September 2, 1939, Sperry Collection.

101. Daryl Chase to Sidney B. Sperry, November 27, 1939, Sperry Collection.

102. J. Reuben Clark to Franklin L. West, February 17, 1940, First Presidency Papers, Church History Library, cited in Wilkinson, First Hundred Years, 2:381–82.

103. Joseph F. Merrill to Christen Jensen, May 28, 1940, cited in Wilkinson, First Hundred Years, 2:384–85.

104. Clark, Office Journal, March 21, 1940, emphasis in original.

105. Clark, Office Journal, March 29, 1940. During this time, Clark was disturbed by articles that had been appearing in Week-day Religious Education, a periodical published by the Department of Education. During March 1940, Clark discussed an article written by Alma King in the periodical. See Clark, Office Journal, March 28–29, 1940.

106. Milton Lynn Bennion, Recollections of a School Man: The Autobiography of M. Lynn Bennion (n.p.: Western Epics, 1987), 108. Existing correspondence indicates that President Clark’s son was a teacher at least as early as 1940 and was teaching during the height of Clark’s concerns over the orthodoxy of the system. See Vernon A. Cooley and J. Reuben Clark III to J. Reuben Clark, December 10, 1940, Clark Papers.

107. J. Reuben Clark to J. Karl Wood, May 27, 1941, Clark Papers.

108. Sidney B. Sperry to Russel B. Swensen, November 20, 1930, Swensen Papers.

109. See Noel B. Reynolds, “The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon in the Twentieth Century,” BYU Studies 38, no. 2 (1999): 18, 25.

110. Dale C. LeCheminant, “T. Edgar Lyon: I Have Never Been Bored!” in Teachers Who Touch Lives, ed. Philip L. Barlow (Bountiful, Utah: Horizon Publishers, 1988), 178.

111. Swensen, oral history, 19.

112. See Russel B. Swensen, The New Testament: The Acts and the Epistles (Salt Lake City: Deseret Sunday School Union Board, 1955). Swensen states in his acknowledgments that he had obtained permission to quote two of Goodspeed’s works in his text, An Introduction to the New Testament and New Testament, an American Translation. In many places he agrees with Goodspeed’s theories of authorship (Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude) and in many places he doesn’t (Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus) remaining neutral on the traditional authorship of others (Revelation). See pages 220, 226, 255, 263–65, 279–81, 292. When Swensen does agree with Goodspeed, he closely follows the latter’s logic. Compare with Edgar J. Goodspeed, The Goodspeed Parallel New Testament (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1943), 502, 534, 562.

113. Swensen, “Mormons at the Chicago Divinity School,” 46.

114. Daryl C. Chase to Sterling S. McMurrin, July 26, 1944, McMurrin Papers.

115. Daryl C. Chase to Sterling S. McMurrin, August 31, 1944, McMurrin Papers.

116. Daryl C. Chase to Sterling S. McMurrin, undated letter (ca. July–August 1944), McMurrin Papers.

117. Daryl C. Chase, oral history, interview by Marie Fuhriman Olsen, February 19, 1980, Special Collections and Archives, Merrill-Cazier Library.

118. George S. Tanner, interview by John Fowles, June 5, 1989, cited in John Lessing Fowles, “A Study Concerning the Mission of the Week-day Religious Educational Program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1890–1990: A Response to Secular Education” (PhD diss., University of Missouri–Columbia, 1990), 106–7.

119. Tanner, oral history, 40; emphasis in original.

120. Tanner, oral history, 43–44.

121. Tanner, oral history, 37.

122. Leonard J. Arrington, “George S. Tanner: A Teaching Pioneer,” in Barlow, Teachers Who Touch Lives, 89. See also Leonard J. Arrington, “Why I Am a Believer,” in A Thoughtful Faith: Essays on Belief by Mormon Scholars, ed. and comp. Philip L. Barlow (Centerville, Utah: Canon Press, 1986), 228–29.

123. Arrington, Adventures of a Church Historian, 23.

124. Heber C. Snell to Sterling S. McMurrin, January 5, 1941, McMurrin Papers.

125. Sterling S. McMurrin to Heber C. Snell, January 19, 1941, Snell Papers.

126. Heber C. Snell to Sterling S. McMurrin, May 16, 1943, McMurrin Papers.

127. Heber C. Snell to Sterling S. McMurrin, September 14, 1947, McMurrin Papers.

128. Sterling S. McMurrin to Heber C. Snell, August 30, 1945, Snell Papers.

129. Heber C. Snell to Franklin L. West, August 11, 1947, Snell Papers.

130. Heber C. Snell, Ancient Israel: Its Story and Meaning (Salt Lake City: Steven and Wallis, 1948), xiv.

131. For a lengthy discussion of this episode, see Sherlock, “Faith and History,” 27–41.

132. See Snell, Ancient Israel, 187–88.

133. Heber C. Snell to David O. McKay, May 28, 1951, Snell Papers.

134. Earl W. Harmer, open letter to Heber C. Snell, December 23, 1948, copy in McMurrin Papers.

135. Heber C. Snell, open letter to Earl W. Harmer, January 7, 1949, cited in Sherlock, “Faith and History,” 29, 39.

136. Joseph Fielding Smith to Ezra M. Hawkes, May 25, 1949, Snell Papers. Joseph Fielding Smith’s letter to Snell with the questionnaire, but minus the final question on the Chicago scholars, is referenced in Sterling S. McMurrin to Heber C. Snell, June 2, 1949, Snell Papers.

137. Sidney B. Sperry to Heber C. Snell, August 31, 1949, McMurrin Papers.

138. Heber C. Snell to Sterling S. McMurrin, November 5, 1949, McMurrin Papers.

139. Heber C. Snell to Sidney C. Sperry, September 20, 1949, copy in Snell Papers.

140. Heber C. Snell to Sidney C. Sperry, September 20, 1949.

141. Franklin L. West to Heber C. Snell, January 5, 1950, Snell Papers.

142. Sterling S. McMurrin to Heber C. Snell, January 16, 1950, Snell Papers.

143. Heber C. Snell to Ernest L. Wilkinson, August 3, 1953, Snell Papers.

144. Heber C. Snell, “The Bible in the Church,” Dialogue 2, no. 1 (Spring 1967): 56.

145. Snell, “Bible in the Church,” 57.

146. Snell, “Bible in the Church,” 60–61.

147. Sidney B. Sperry, “Scholars and Prophets,” Dialogue 2, no. 1 (Spring 1967): 74–75.

148. Sperry, “Scholars and Prophets,” 83.

149. Kent Robson, “The Bible, the Church, and Its Scholars,” Dialogue 2, no 1. (Spring 1967): 90.

150. Register to the papers of Heber C. Snell, Merrill-Cazier Library.

151. Heber C. Snell to Joseph Fielding Smith, April 23, 1948, Snell Papers.

152. Heber C. Snell, oral history, interview by Frederick Buchanan, Hay Rogers, and Dale LeCheminant, 49–51, Everett L. Cooley Oral History Collection, Marriott Library.

153. Waterstradt, They Gladly Taught, 1:161. Sperry also wrote an impressive number of books on biblical topics as well, including The Spirit of the Old Testament, Biblical Aramaic, The Voice of Israel’s Prophets, and Paul’s Life and Letters.

154. David H. Yarn Jr., “Sidney B. Sperry: A Reminiscence,” in Waterstradt, They Gladly Taught, 1:169.

155. Scott Kenney, “Saints in Divinity Schools,” Sunstone 3, no. 4 (May–June 1978): 22–24.

156. Collected Statements of Former Students at the University of Chicago, 1971, collected by Russel B. Swensen, Church History Library; emphasis in original.

157. Swensen, Collected Statements.

158. Swensen, Collected Statements.

159. Swensen, oral history, 10.

160. For a brief history of the Religion Department at BYU, see Packer, “Seek Learning Even by Study and Also by Faith,” 41–55.

161. Clark, “Charted Course,” 249–50.

162. J. Reuben Clark, speech notes from BYU Seminary Teachers Banquet, July 15, 1954, Clark Papers.

163. Memorandum of Suggestions made by President J. Reuben Clark, courtesy Max Mulgard of the Church Correlation Department. Clark made these remarks at a meeting with the Presidencies and Superintendencies of the Church Auxiliary organizations on March 29, 1940, in the Church General Office Building.

164. Barlow, Mormons and the Bible, 137.

165. Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Bitton, The Mormon Experience (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), 260. Several attempts were made to excommunicate Snell, but the action never took place. Snell remained active in the Church until his death. See Register to the Papers of Heber C. Snell, Mss. 32, USU Special Collections, accessed October 27, 2010 at http://library.usu.edu/Specol/manuscript/collms32.html. Snell referenced the possible excommunication in a letter, never sent, to the high council of the Cache Stake, Heber C. Snell to Cache Stake High Council, Oct. 6, 1962, Snell Papers, Special Collections.

166. Packer, “Seek Learning Even by Study and Also by Faith,” 44.