*** Before leaving for the Wartburg yesterday, we did a guided walking tour within the walls of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It’s a quaint and picturesque little city, the very image of a late medieval German town. (Or even of a French one. I can easily imagine the story of Beauty and the Beast being filmed in Rothenburg o.d.T.) We had visited it only once before, so this brief repeated stay and the excellent local... Read more
*** I’ve been late in calling attention to this article, which I published nearly a week ago in Meridian Magazine — whose leadership I ran into in Oberammergau just a couple of days back. Shocking. You can be sure that things have gotten seriously out of hand when I’m so busy that I neglect my own self-promotion! “What the Pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela Taught Us About Devotion” And here are a trio of items... Read more
*** We left Oberammergau this morning and drove to the nearby Schloss Linderhof, the only one of his palaces that Ludwig II lived to see actually completed. It’s a small gem, surrounded by beautiful fountains and grounds and remarkably ornate inside. Unfortunately, the “Venus Grotto,” inspired by Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser, is closed for repairs until sometime in 2024. I was especially interested to visit, once again, the Maurischer Kiosk or “Moorish Kiosk,” a small structure... Read more
*** A new article appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “An Unfortunate Approach to Joseph Smith’s Translation of Ancient Scripture,” by Spencer Kraus Review of Jonathan Neville, A Man That Can Translate: Joseph Smith and the Nephite Interpreters. Salt Lake City: Digital Legends Press, 2020. 385 pages. $22.99 (paperback). Abstract: This is the first of two papers that explore Jonathan Neville’s two latest books regarding the translation of the Book of Mormon. Neville... Read more
*** Sahar Qumsiyeh is an assistant professor of mathematics at Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg and the author of Peace for a Palestinian: One Woman’s Story of Faith Amidst War in the Holy Land. (The Interpreter Foundation published two reviews of her book soon after its publication. See “Peace in the Holy Land,” by Shirley S. Ricks, and “Dehumanization and Peace,” by Kent P. Jackson.) With her kind permission, I share here four recent entries from her... Read more
*** I’m afraid that you’re either going to have to skip this entry or endure another very personal entry from me. The other day, I marked the anniversary of the birth of our first granddaughter. (See “It’s been eight years now.”) She was our first grandchild, altogether, and she spent the entirety of her short mortal life in a hospital in Orlando, Florida. We knew her so very briefly that, to my shame and horror,... Read more
*** Here are some new items that have recently gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Nibley Lectures: Time Vindicates the Prophets — Introduction From 7 March 1954 to 17 October in 1954, Hugh Nibley delivered a series of thirty weekly lectures on KSL Radio that were also published as pamphlets. The series, called “Time Vindicates the Prophets,” was given in answer to those who were challenging the right of members of the Church of... Read more
*** We took our group today to the Chiemsee, the largest lake in the region, and, via boat, out to the Herreninsel (roughly, “Gentlemen’s Island,” which sits not far from Fraueninsel, “Ladies’ Island”). The most famous feature on the island is King Ludwig II’s Schloss Herrenchiemsee, his Versailles-inspired palace. I’ve passed by the Chiemsee on numerous occasions and even gotten off the freeway to look around. But, although I’ve visited his other castles, for some reason that... Read more
*** I maintain a blog for many reasons. One of them is purely personal: It’s a kind of journal for me, and, even more particularly, it’s a way of remembering things, and especially of remembering people, whose memory I refuse to allow to be wholly lost. So, for instance, I’m afraid that readers of this blog will have to put up with my regular yearly memorials to my brother and my parents. Today, though,... Read more
*** A new Witnesses-related short feature has been posted for your viewing pleasure: “Witnesses of the Book of Mormon — Insights Episode 8: What was the Cost of Being a Witness?” What price did the witnesses pay for being witnesses—and for never denying their testimonies of the Book of Mormon? This is the eighth in a series compiled from from the many interviews conducted during the course of the Witnesses film project. This series of mini-films is... Read more
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