Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 144

Two Notes on Nauvoo History

    ***   For much of his lifetime, newspaper reports insinuated that Joseph Smith was duping his followers in a greed-motivated religious scam.   For a person of his remarkable abilities and undeniable charisma, however, it seems that he derived very little monetary profit from his devilish scheme, if such it was.   “Now […]

Carthage Jail, Tonga, and the Abrahamic Covenant

    ***   A new article went up today — at this point, you probably shouldn’t be surprised by that fact — in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   ““The Lord God Will Proceed”: Nephi’s Wordplay in 1 Nephi 22:8–12 and the Abrahamic Covenant,” by Matthew L. Bowen Abstract: Nephi quotes […]

My list of four basic books to strengthen faith

    ***   I’ve posted this list several times before.  It seems appropriate to post it yet again:   I’m sometimes contacted by people who’re experiencing doubts about the claims of the Restoration or whose spouse or father or daughter has lost faith.  I always ask what the specific issues might be, and I […]

Vincible Ignorance

    ***   In case you haven’t heard, Deseret Book and Excel Entertainment have now established a program for streaming videos called Deseret Video+ and, if you scroll down on its initial page, you will see that Interpreter’s theatrical film Witnesses is one of the program’s premiere offerings.  Please take a look.  And — […]

Sunday Church

    ***   I recycle here, with a small handful of slight modifications, some thoughts that I jotted down a few years back.  I think they’re still relevant:   Not infrequently, I read comments from purportedly liberated ex-Latter-day Saints about the glories of churchless Sundays.  Instead of attending mind-numbingly dull and repetitious meetings, they […]

Commemorating a Holiday

    ***   This link went up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation earlier today:   Interpreter Radio Show — December 19, 2021 The 19 December 2021 broadcast of the Interpreter Radio Show is now archived and available, at no charge and freed from commercials and similar interruptions, for your listening pleasure and […]

Death, Data, and Theories

    ***   This interfaith discussion series, keyed to the “Come, Follow Me” curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, seems to me an absolutely wonderful idea.  I intend to incorporate it into my regular ponderings for this new year:   John A. Widtsoe Foundation “Come Follow Me” Conversations: The Old […]

Brigham Young, critic of racism

    ***   In his important book Religion of a Different Color, Paul Reeve recounts an interesting episode involving Brigham Young:   An early mixed-race (Black and American Indian) member of the Church named William McCary — a rather tenuous and somewhat erratic and even unbalanced fellow, as it turned out, who ultimately didn’t endure […]

“Verbal Punctuation in the Book of Mormon I: (And) Now”

    ***   A new article went up today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   “Verbal Punctuation in the Book of Mormon I: (And) Now,” by John Gee Abstract: The Book of Mormon, being an ancient book, was originally written without typographic punctuation and employs verbal punctuation instead. This article looks at […]

Good. And Evil.

    ***   I think that — understandably, given the many years and the considerable inflation that have intervened since the late 1820s — we modern Latter-day Saints typically fail to grasp the magnitude of the sacrifice made by Martin Harris in order to publish the Book of Mormon.   E. B. Grandin’s price […]