Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 1200

Christmas Cheer 4

    Nearly two weeks ago, I posted a link to a wonderful short video about the famous “Christmas Truce” of 1914 at Flanders Fields.  If you haven’t already seen it, please watch it now.  It’s only three minutes long:   http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeter...   Even if you have seen it, you won’t be damaged much by [Read More...]

“The Blessings of a Mission Tour”

    I love to read the reflections of those who are serving the Lord full-time as missionaries.  Here’s a short piece from a friend in Samoa:   http://samoamission.blogspot.com/2014...    

A need for God

    “It seems to me that when confronted with the marvels of life and the universe, one must ask why and not just how. The only possible answers are religious. . . . I find a need for God in the universe and in my own life.” Arthur L. Schawlow (d. 1999), Stanford University, [Read More...]

Beautiful aerial footage of the temples in Utah

    Four fine minutes for a Sabbath:   http://www.ldsliving.com/story/77449-...    

Music of Christmas 3

    I’ve always loved Gustav Holst’s beautiful setting of Christina Rossetti’s “In the Bleak Midwinter.”  Listen, here, to choir and congregation sharing the wonder of the piece and its message:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRobr...    

The real spirit of Christmas

    Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. Calvin Coolidge    

Mark your calendars!

    I’m very pleased to announce that, despite an extraordinarily busy schedule and after much back-and-forth about crowded calendars, Dr. Guy Consolmagno, the official Vatican astronomer, has agreed to come to Provo, Utah, for one or more lectures under the auspices of The Interpreter Foundation.   But his visit is more than a year [Read More...]

Mosiah 23

        Alma’s anti-monarchical stance in today’s reading, Mosiah 23,  is quite striking.  It’s plain that Alma had been horrified by King Noah, by the power of a morally depraved king to drag those around him down.  His experience in that king’s court fundamentally affected his political views.   In just a short time, [Read More...]

My endorsement of Daniel Boyarin’s book

    Neal Rappleye calls my attention to the back cover of Daniel Boyarin’s The Jewish Gospels, which I reviewed very favorably back 14 June 2012, and helpfully supplies the photograph above.   I hadn’t been aware of this.  Obviously, the printing that I first read didn’t have my response on its jacket.    

A pet peeve regarding the Taliban

    No, no.  Nothing so trivial as their bombings and killings and oppression of women.   I’m talking grammar here.  Something really important.   In Arabic, the equivalent of the English word student is طالب or taalib.  (The t is a dark one, unlike our normal English t, but I can’t represent that here.)  The Arabic plural of [Read More...]