Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 156

All of you can partake, freely.

    ***   I presented a lecture last week in connection with the Interpreter Foundation’s upcoming “Ultimate Egypt Tour,” under the title “What You Need to Know About Egypt’s Most Recent Two Thousand Years.”  That lecture is now available online and at no charge for anybody who cares to watch it.  You simply need […]

Some More on Spirituality, Religiosity, and Health

    ***   I continue to go through the articles that Dr. Lynn Johnson has kindly called to my attention over the past several weeks.  Here are some additional items, which, like those mentioned in my previous blog entry on this subject, plainly appear to have come from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion […]

Two studies of LDS, LGBTQ Youth, and Suicide

    ***   There are relatively few genuinely new arguments against the Restoration and against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  But some do exist that have been formulated in recent years.  One of the more innovative arguments, popular among some critics of the Church, is that Latter-day Saint standards and doctrine […]

“An Ishmael Buried Near Nahom”

    ***   Neal Rappleye published a potentially very significant article today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   “An Ishmael Buried Near Nahom” Abstract: Latter-day Saint scholars generally agree that “the place called… Nahom,” where Ishmael was buried (1 Nephi 16:34) is identified as the Nihm tribal region in Yemen. […]

“The Better Angels of Our Nature”

    ***   My wife and I got back about an hour ago from the event that Deseret Book and Excel Entertainment put on to celebrate the release of the Interpreter Foundation’s dramatic film, Witnesses, on DVD.  I think that the program went very well.  Most of it, though not quite all of it, […]

“Quiet Revivalism: New Light on the Burned-Over District”

    ***   The big Deseret Book and Excel Entertainment event for the Witnesses film is tomorrow (Thursday) night, 14 October 2021.  Don’t miss it.  We’ll be reading a list of persons from the lectern who have been called on missions to the new Antarctica McMurdo Station Mission.  Your name may be on it. […]

“The First Vision Within the Context of Revivalism”

    ***   I don’t know whether there are any seats left — I think so, but I’m not sure — for Deseret Book’s and Excel Entertainment’s big Witnesses event this coming Thursday evening, but it received a bit of publicity this afternoon on the Fox-13 television show The Place:   “Meet actors and […]

“Ancient Sacred Vestments: Scriptural Symbols and Meanings”

    ***   This interesting article was posted in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship at noon today:   Donald W. Parry, “Ancient Sacred Vestments: Scriptural Symbols and Meanings” Abstract: In this essay Parry starts with the symbology of ritual vestments, and then discusses in detail how the ancient clothing worn in […]

Religion and Mental Health

    ***   I’m hoping that my travel commitments will slow down in 2022, and possibly even this year.  Happily, I’m in a small pause right now, which has given me a bit of time to reflect upon my writing goals and on how, if possible, to achieve some of them before I depart […]

The lovely features of a naturalistic universe

    ***   A new item has gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   Book of Moses Essays #76: Noah (Moses 8) Was Noah’s Ark Designed as a Floating Temple? (Moses 8:22–30; Genesis 6:5–22; chapters 7–8)   ***   Sigh.  When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to […]