Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1148

A report from Vancouver

    I spoke early this afternoon at the New Westminster campus of Douglas College, on “Islam, ISIS, and the Media.”  Good audience, excellent questions.   In the evening, we went to dinner with our hosts and another couple at The Teahouse in Stanley Park.  My wife ordered the Pacific Roasted Sablefish, I ordered the [Read More...]

Grammar and clear thinking

    I actually tend to agree with this:   “People who cannot distinguish between good and bad language, or who regard the distinction as unimportant, are unlikely to think carefully about anything else.” B. R. Myers    Posted from Langley, British Columbia    

“Place of Crushing: The Literary Function of Heshlon in Ether 13:25-31″

    I’m a bit late in posting this link because I’ve been out lecturing, well away from my computer.  But it’s Friday, so you surely should have known that a new article was coming from Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture:   http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/plac...   Posted from Langley, British Columbia    

“Lure of the Caliphate”

    Malise Ruthven published this lucid and insightful article — only slightly marred by one obligatory gratuitous jibe at George W. Bush — in the New York Review of Books back at the end of February:   http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/...   I recommend it.   Posted from Langley, British Columbia    

“What Mormons should know about NBC’s new television series ‘A.D.’”

    I’m hoping to watch this:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/86...   Posted from Langley, British Columbia    

“Are the first stars in the universe invisible?”

      A fascinating excursion into the earliest history of the Universe.  And a hint of a major discovery just around the bend:   https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang...   Posted from Langley, British Columbia    

“When the Left is Losing Its ‘Sexual Diversity Studies’ Students, Perhaps It’s Getting Too Shrill”

    Perpetual indignation and rage does eventually grow tiresome — for normal people, at least.   http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/...   There may, thus, be some faint reason for hope.  Maybe the West isn’t doomed?    

New Testament 110

    Matthew 11:28-30   Three of the most pleasant and reassuring verses in the gospels.   Perhaps something of the nature of the “learning” that Jesus wants us to receive from him (“learn from me”) can be discerned in the fact that the Greek imperative verb “learn!” used here (mathete/μάθετε) derives from the same [Read More...]

“Slouching toward Mecca”

    A review of a new novel — a pessimistic account of decadence and decline, and of its possible result — by one of France’s foremost writers:   http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archi...   In 1918 and in 1922, Oswald Spengler published his once very famous two-volume work Der Untergang des Abendlandes (“The Decline of the West”).  It [Read More...]

New Testament 109

    Matthew 11:25-27 Luke 10:21-22 Compare John 3:35; 7:29; 10:14-15; 13:3; 17:2, 25   I understand that orthodox Nicene Trinitarians can read these verses without seeing a contradiction of their notion of a Triune God.  But, seriously, it seems to me that the Latter-day Saint understanding of the Father and the Son as two [Read More...]