Here’s a chance to hear one of the most prolific and consistently interesting thinkers in contemporary Mormonism:   http://www.mormondiscussionpodcast.org/2015/08/blake-ostler-wise-pearls/   Posted from Erfurt, Germany     Read more

    http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/why-there-will-never-be-another-einstein/   Posted from Erfurt, Germany     Read more

    http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/uok-dfc081815.php   I’m not particularly inclined in this direction, but the thought amuses me:  Mormons are so commonly depicted as complacent white capitalists.  How about touting obedience to the Word of Wisdom as an act of revolutionary international economic justice?   In that connection, here’s a little known song by Che Guevara, writing under his pen name of Eliza Snow:   In our lovely Deseret, Where the Saints of God have met, There’s a multitude of children all... Read more

    This is a great and inspiring story:   http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/08/24/american-train-attack-heroes-awarded-france-highest-honor/?intcmp=hpbt3   Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall standBetween their loved home and the war’s desolation!   Posted from Erfurt, Germany     Read more

    Did you miss this item on the blog of the Interpreter Foundation?   “What You Will Read About in the New Institute Manual on Church History”   I confess, to my shame, that I did.  So it’s not inconceivable that you might have, as well.   And I don’t think that I ever called attention to this one, either:   “Five Misunderstandings of the Book of Mormon Text that Veils Discovery of Its Geography”   Life gets hectic.... Read more

    After figuring out where the Universität Erfurt is located (and hence where the XXI. Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions will be taking place), we spent last evening strolling around the Altstadt, the medieval core of Erfurt.   The most spectacular and iconic sight in the city is the Domplatz, the large “Cathedral Square” that sits before the Severikirche and the cathedral of Sankt Marien. It’s magnificent, and particularly so when night has fallen... Read more

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/422819/racist-microaggression-list   And, of course, you’re a racist.   But that pretty much goes without saying.   Unless, obviously, you belong to a group that lacks the capacity to be racist.   Note:  Saying that an entire group lacks a human capacity common to another group isn’t racist.   Unless, maybe, it is.   It’s all so confusing!   Posted from Erfurt, Germany     Read more

    Driving from the Frankfurt airport to Erfurt today, we passed by the former Huguenot village of Friedrichsdorf.  So, naturally, we stopped off for a quick visit to the grounds of the Frankfurt Germany Temple.   After about two weeks, it will be closed for renovations for roughly eighteen months.   My wonderful mission president in Switzerland, the late Edwin Q. Cannon Jr., subsequently served as the second president of the Frankfurt Germany Temple.   Posted from Erfurt, Germany... Read more

    And the word grace, in this sense, is obviously cognate with Spanish gracias, Italian grazie, and English gratitude.   If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.  (Meister Eckhart, great German mystic, born roughly 1260 near Erfurt) Posted from Erfurt, Germany   Read more

    A new entry, by Brant Gardner, on the blog of the Interpreter Foundation:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/examining-the-heartland-hypothesis-as-geography/   Posted from Erfurt, Germany     Read more