research update
Walking between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Joseph F. Merrill Carmen Cole CARMEN COLE (carmen@byu.edu) IS A DESIGNER AT THE RELIGIOUS STUDIES CENTER.
A
postle. Educator. Scientist. Founder of the University
University of Utah, and spent thirty
first seminary, a program that later
years working with colleagues at
became the signature educational
of Utah School of Mines and
the University of Utah and the Utah
program of The Church of Jesus
Engineering. Founder of the Latter-
State Legislature before successfully
Christ of Latter-day Saints. More
day Saint seminary and institute
creating the School of Mines and
than anyone, Merrill is responsible
programs.
Engineering at the University of Utah.
for the distinctive Latter-day Saint
His work also inspired adding
program of supplemental religious
Devoted to both God and science, Joseph F. Merrill was a man like no
spiritual instruction alongside
education now operating in dozens of
other. When he was a young man,
academic instruction. “With the
countries and serving nearly a million
his home state of Utah was deeply
help of others, Merrill created the
students.” 2
divided between church and state. Merrill worked tirelessly over his life to bridge the gap between the two, resolving to walk the precarious line between “the devil and the deep blue sea.” 1 The many intricacies of Merrill’s life are brought to light in Truth Seeker: The Life of Joseph F. Merrill, Scientist, Educator, and Apostle, newly published by the Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book. Along the path to building bridges between the worlds of academia and faith, Merrill left Utah to study in Baltimore, received his PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1899, returned to Utah as faculty at the
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BY U R EL IG IOU S EDU C AT IO N R E VIEW
The first seminary near Granite High School in Salt Lake City. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.