Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 50

“Matthew Black and Mircea Eliade Meet Hugh Nibley”

  I was surprisingly sad to leave Switzerland this time.  As we were packing up to leave the house in which we’d been staying, the couple that takes care of the place arrived to tidy up after us for the absentee landlord, who is a lifelong friend of theirs (but who now resides in the […]

Last comments from Europe, for a while

  Well, the FAIR LDS conferences in Europe ended a week ago (though two or three solo presentations may remain).  They were, I think, reasonably successful.  The in-person attendance in Rome was disappointingly poor, but the audiences in Salzburg and Göteborg were fairly good.  And, in all cases, the talks were recorded, translated, and made […]

Farewell to Rivendell?

  First of all, I wish a happy Juneteenth to everybody out there.  It’s a great day to remember. I first visited Switzerland fifty-four years ago.  Yes, I’m that old.  It was a brief visit, on a six-week tour of Europe with a busload of recent high school graduates.  We stayed for a couple of […]

Deep into Inner (and Original) Switzerland

  We headed out this morning along the northern shore of the Brienzersee (through Ringgenberg, which was probably my most important tracting area in the Berner Oberland and perhaps altogether in my mission, and where I had a remarkable set of unexpected experiences with the local Protestant pastor), back over the Brünigpass to Altdorf and […]

The Most Beautiful Place on Our Planet

  This morning, we drove from Zürich down past Luzern and then over the Brünig Pass to Interlaken, where I spent seven months of my mission.  Strictly speaking, we drove to a “suburb” of Interlaken called Matten, where a Swiss friend who earned a doctorate in the United States and who has lived and worked […]

“Faith, Evidence and the Abundant Life”

  I taught the Sunday school class this morning (on Alma 5-7) in what I think is the Västra Frölunda Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The ward meets in the building in which we held the FAIR conference yesterday — though it’s a different ward from where we attended (and […]

A Ten-Year Anniversary Falls on Father’s Day

    I maintain a blog for many reasons.  Irritating a small handful of folks on the Peterson Obsession Board was an afterthought, and it has never been among my primary motivations.. One of those reasons is purely personal:  It’s a kind of journal for me, and, even more particularly, it’s a way of remembering […]

“Elvis Has Left the Library”

  A new, 54-minute-long episode of the series A Marvelous Work — an episode that, shockingly, includes me — has been posted on the website of Scripture Central.  Watch it at your own risk:   “Who Actually Saw the Gold Plates? | A Marvelous Work Episode 5” The final gathering in the series of European […]

In Beowulf Territory

  Two new articles went up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “An Analysis of the Financial Incentives in Attacking the Restoration,” written by Ron C. Rhodes Abstract: With the popularity of social media growing exponentially, prominent critics of the Church are leveraging the platforms, particularly YouTube, as a key resource to produce […]

Music! Again!

  Last night, we attended a performance by a string quintet (occasionally joined by a French horn) at the Schloss Mirabell in Salzburg.  The palace, which stands with its gardens on the shore of the Salzach River north of the medieval city walls, was built about 1606 by Prince-Archbishop Wolf Dietrich Raitenau as a pleasure […]