Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1190

Music of Christmas 28

    An exquisitely beautiful choral version of today’s Christmas hymn:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsVnv...   This is a Christian folk hymn from the American South.  It was first published at Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1811, and has been called a “white spiritual.”  That aspect is clearly brought out in these two quite different videos:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu9Kj...   [Read More...]

Music of Christmas 27

    Responding to my request for a Cuban Christmas song, my Havana-born daughter-in-law suggests this one, Felicidades, by the Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cORUl...   Cuba proper, under the rule of the Brothers Castro, hasn’t been a very favorable place for Christmas meditations or celebrations, so it’s fitting, I suppose, that we turn [Read More...]

“Advent refers to Christ’s second coming”

    Here’s a column that Bill Hamblin and I did for the Deseret News back in 2012:   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/76...   For Christmas 2012 and Christmas 2014, I actually did two series of “Advent” posts here on this blog.  But they were a lot of work, and they seemed to draw minimal interest, so I [Read More...]

The Qur’an on Mary and Jesus

      “And [as for] her who guarded her chastity, We breathed of our Spirit into her and we made her and her son a sign to the worlds.”  (Qur’an 21:91)    

What kind of “poor”?

    Perhaps I should be clear about how I interpret the quotation from Archbishop Romero that I posted early this morning.   I don’t take him to mean that you can’t have a true Christmas unless you’re in debt, or unemployed, or working at a subsistence job, or living in a slum or a [Read More...]

New Testament 10

    Matthew 2:13-21   Matthew’s account of the flight into Egypt exhibits nicely one of the signature elements of his style and approach — his constant effort to illustrate how Jesus fulfills Old Testament prophecies.  And it demonstrates how he reads those prophecies.   For example, in 2:15, he says that the exile of [Read More...]

“How academia’s liberal bias is killing social science”

    Geoff Biddulph called this article to my attention:   http://theweek.com/article/index/2737...   Very interesting.  And parts of it ring particularly true to my personal experience in academia, particularly (of course) beyond BYU.    

Who can celebrate a genuine Christmas?

    No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need ever of God — for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on [Read More...]

Tradition in animal culture

    A fascinating article in the 6 December 2014 issue of The Economist (“Left or right wing?”) concerns the existence and nature of culture — yes, culture — among animals, and particularly among the unfortunately/awkwardly named birds known as “great tits.”   Back in the days when milk was delivered each morning to doorsteps [Read More...]

“Why rape is so intrinsic to religion”

    I actually hesitated to share this, in view of the season.  But then I thought that some of you might be interested, and that people ought to understand what some of the more verbally aggressive enemies of religious belief are up to.  This article is Valerie Tarico’s offering on the Sunday just before Christmas:   [Read More...]