Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 174

“Religion, Spirituality, and Health”

    ***   I offer here a potpourri of appalling horrors from the essentially inexhaustible Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File©:   “Donation to Assist Exploited Children in Hawaii: Church partners with Ho’ōla Nā Pua to support the Bromley Family Pearl Haven Campus”   “Latter-day Saint NBA CEO tells Wall Street Journal […]

Four Books That Can Fortify Faith

    I’m pleased to report that, based on views and shares, the Interpreter Foundation’s theatrical film, Witnesses, is currently ranked Number Two nationally on iTunes Apple Trailers.  (To put this in perspective, Above Suspicion, starring Emilia Clarke, comes in fifth, and The Misfits, starring Pierce Brosnan, ranks seventh.)  It would be fun if we were able […]

Close Readings of the Book of Mormon and Other Scriptural Texts

    Two new items went up today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.  The first is by A. Keith Thompson, and the second is by Blake T. Ostler:   “The Brass Plates: Can Modern Scholarship Help Identify Their Contents?” Abstract: The Book of Mormon contains little information about what the Brass Plates contain. […]

“For all find what they truly seek.”

    Another trio of new items has gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   ““We Will Still Weep for Zion”: War and Wealth” This is the seventh of eight weekly blog posts published in honor of the life and work of Hugh Nibley (1910–2005). The series is in honor of the new, […]

Interreligious Dialogue, Effective and Ineffective

    Driving southbound on I-15 early this morning, I was pleased to see an advertisement for the Interpreter Foundation’s soon-to premiere theatrical film, Witnesses, on an electronic billboard.  And just a few hours ago, I saw the same advertisement on an electronic billboard at the corner of University Parkway and State Street — in […]

Creation

    I think that I failed to call y0ur attention to this item, which went up two or three days ago on the still barely-alive website of the Interpreter Foundation:   “Book of Moses Essays #54: Moses Sees the Garden of Eden (Moses 3): Spiritual Creation (Moses 3:5–7)”   Thinking about creation right now, […]

“Matthew Black and Mircea Eliade Meet Hugh Nibley”

    ***   This  interesting reminiscence was just published in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   Gordon C. Thomasson, “Matthew Black and Mircea Eliade Meet Hugh Nibley” Abstract: As a graduate student, Gordon Thomasson had the opportunity to introduce two internationally renowned scholars to the publications and scholarship of Hugh Nibley: Matthew […]

The view from Haleakalā on Mother’s Day 2021

    ***   After a leisurely morning that included partaking of the sacrament, we drove over to the Kula district — where, by the way, most of the famous Maui onions are grown —  on the western slope of the massive volcano Haleakalā.  We had a specific reason for going there: We wanted to […]

Lahaina, on the Island of Maui: An Unlikely Holy City

    ***   You may perhaps have missed this:   “Apple iTunes Features the Witnesses Movie Trailer on the Front Page of their Movie Trailer Site”   One critic, obviously in acute need of something, anything, negative to say about the Witnesses film in response to the iTunes story, has demanded to know how […]

Giving the Book of Ether and Other Things Their Proper Due

    ***   Two new items have appeared today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   Brant A. Gardner, “Giving the Book of Ether its Proper Due” Review of Daniel L. Belnap, ed., Illuminating the Jaredite Records (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University / Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2020). 320 pages. Hardback, […]