Daniel C. Peterson

Daniel C. Peterson is Mormon apologist, and professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic in the Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages at Brigham Young University and currently serves as editor-in-chief of BYU's Middle Eastern Texts Initiative. He is a member of the executive council of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University.

Background

A native of southern California, Daniel C. Peterson received a bachelor’s degree in Greek and philosophy from Brigham Young University (BYU) and, after several years of study in Jerusalem and Cairo, earned his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

Dr. Peterson is a professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic at BYU, where he teaches Arabic language and literature at all levels, Islamic philosophy, Islamic culture and civilization, Islamic religion, the Qur'an, the introductory and senior “capstone” courses for Middle Eastern Studies majors, and various other occasional, specialized classes. He is the editor of the twice-annual FARMS Review, the author of several books and numerous articles on Islamic and Latter-day Saint topics–including a biography entitled Muhammad: Prophet of God (Eerdmans, 2007)–and has lectured across the United States, in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and at various Islamic universities in the Near East and Asia.

He has served as a member of the board, chairman of the board, associate executive director, co-director of research, and, currently, director of outreach for what is now known as BYU’s Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship–which has, among other things, produced a computer-digitized version of the Dead Sea Scrolls; electronically recovered damaged documents from the ruins of Herculaneum (Italy), Petra (Jordan), Bonampak (Mexico), and elsewhere; and, with the Vatican Apostolic Library in Rome, electronically published editions of ancient Syriac Christian manuscripts. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of BYU’s four-part Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, which includes not only the Islamic Translation Series but three sister series: the Medical Works of Moses Maimonides, Eastern Christian Texts, and the Library of the Christian East. These series publish dual-language editions of classical works of medieval Arabic and Persian philosophy, Arabic medicine and science, and early Syriac and Christian Arabic literature. (The volumes are distributed by the University of Chicago Press.). In 2007, in recognition of his establishment of the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, Dr. Peterson was named a Utah Academy Fellow and declared a lifetime member of the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters.

Peterson is known for his work as an apologist and scholar on subjects dealing with claims of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), of which he is a member. He has served as the editor of the FARMS Review, a periodical produced by the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies. Peterson is a regular participant in online fora about Mormonism where he discusses the LDS faith and its apologetics. One of his most recent projects has been the development of a website featuring the testimonies of LDS scholars.

Peterson served a mission in the Switzerland Zurich mission. He served on the LDS Church's gospel doctrine committee and has also served in at least one BYU ward bishopric.

Peterson was a bishop in the LDS Church.

Controversy

Under Peterson's editorship of the FARMS Review an encrypted message that disparaged an independent researcher, Brent Metcalfe, was included in a review by William Hamblin. Hamblin wrote a paper including the acrostic: "Metcalfe is Butthead" later stating it was an inside joke between himself and Peterson. It was also intended to demonstrate the purposeful inclusion of a pattern, which in his own work on the Book of Mormon has been criticized in regards to the Book of Mormon. The printing of the issue was halted, the review changed, the comment removed, and it did not appear in more than a handful of copies of the FARMS Review. According to Peterson, the board of directors were displeased with the incident.

Upon learning of the message, Metcalfe was displeased, and attempted to pass it off as indicative of FARMS publications in general by stating:

"I have been told that Daniel C. Peterson, FARMS board member and 'Review' editor, approved its inclusion — I am unaware of other FARMS board members who may have known. Frankly, I'm stunned. Hamblin and Peterson's behavior is contrary to all Mormon ethics I was taught."

"Do Hamblin and Peterson's methods typify the brand of 'scholarship' FARMS, BYU Department of History, and BYU Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages cultivates and endorses? Evidently some have shifted from apologist to misologist."

Peterson has responded to Metcalfe, saying:

"My understanding and my memory have it that perhaps slightly more than five were printed and bound (and released), but fewer than ten. If I'm wrong, I'm not wrong by very much. There were very few printed and distributed, and virtually all were successfully recalled."

Well known critics of the LDS Church Jerald and Sandra Tanner noted:

"Both Hamblin and Peterson seem to be very skillful in making ad hominem attacks on those with whom they differ. Since Professor Peterson serves as editor of Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, he sets a very bad example for contributors to that publication. Anyone who examines the articles written by Daniel C. Peterson, William Hamblin, Louis Midgley, and some of the other Mormon scholars will see that they have sometimes been mean spirited in their attempt to save the church.

Other critics of Peterson's work have often cited this incident to call Peterson's character or scholarship into question. Peterson and other apologists believe the incident is largely irrelevant in view of the large body of other work Peterson has done in the realms of both Islamic studies and Mormon apologetics. Peterson pointed out, that, ironically, criticism on this point fifteen years later represents a good example of the ad hominem fallacy:

"[T]he acrostic was unknown to the leadership of FARMS, which neither approved it nor supported it. Demonizing and dismissing the entire organization (and, sometimes, even all "apologists") as some critics continue to do fully a decade and a half and many personnel changes after this very trivial little inside joke, is simply ridiculous, and, as it's often used, represents as clear an illustration of the ad hominem fallacy of irrelevant diversion..."

Publications

• Peterson, Daniel C. (2007), Muhammad, Prophet of God, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (published February 26, 2007), ISBN 0-8028-0754-2.
• Peterson, Daniel C.; Ricks, Stephen D. (1998), Offenders for a Word, Foundation for Ancient Research & Mormon Studies (published October 1998), ISBN 0-934893-35-7.

External links

• Reflections on Secular Anti-Mormonism
• Sic et Non: Daniel C. Peterson (blog)