Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 175

Addendum 6: Founding the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative at BYU (Part 2)

    ***   First, though, don’t miss this newly published item on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   ““One Peep at the Other Side”: What Did Hugh Nibley’s Near-Death Experience Teach Him about the Purpose of Life?”   ***   This portion of today’s post is continued from “Addendum 5: Founding the Middle […]

Billboards, iTunes, and Bling

    ***   I’m pleased to report that, with no apparent connection to any celebration of Cinco de Mayo, billboard advertisements for the Interpreter Foundation’s theatrical film Witnesses have evidently gone up today at a few places along Interstate 15 in the region of Salt Lake City.  There may also be one down in […]

“Martin Harris: Skeptic or Gullible Dupe?”

    ***   The most recent installment of my new twice-a-month column for Meridian Magazine has now appeared:   “Martin Harris: Skeptic or Gullible Dupe?”   For some odd reason, the Book of Mormon witnesses have been on my mind quite a bit lately.   ***   In case you missed them:   “President […]

Tickets to “Witnesses” Are Available Now for 34 Theaters in Several States

    I want to remind you that the Interpreter Foundation’s new feature film Witnesses will open in selected theaters within slightly less than a month, and that tickets are already on sale for it.  You can order tickets by going to the film’s official website.  Look in the upper left corner of the website […]

Change and Decay in the Mid-Pacific

    ***   Happily, we were able to attend the funeral of our friend and Orem neighbor yesterday.  (See “Farewell, For Now, to a Friend,” but also one of the “other matters” here.) Doing so, however, has definitely put me into an elegiac mood.   Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day. […]

“The Divine Handclasp in the Hebrew Bible and in Near Eastern Iconography”

    ***   Another article has appeared, this one by David M. Calabro, in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   “The Divine Handclasp in the Hebrew Bible and in Near Eastern Iconography” Abstract: David Calabro explores what he describes as the “divine handclasp” in the Hebrew Bible. The term refers to a […]

Simplicity, Harmony, and Brilliance

    ***   Here, I share some passages that I marked when reading Thomas Dubay, The Evidential Power of Beauty: Science and Theology Meet (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999), a while back:   [F]or science, beauty is objective, “out there”.  Among the mechanistic suppositions of previous generations was the idea that beauty is an […]

An old temple in Manti and, now, a new one in Ephraim, and other matters

    ***   This is very, very good news:   “President Nelson announces plans to preserve pioneer craftsmanship of Manti Utah Temple, construct a new temple in nearby Ephraim”   “Church announces new Latter-day Saint temple in Ephraim, Utah. Manti temple to retain its pioneer heritage”   ***   I hope that some of […]

“And the One Pointed the Way: Issues of Interpretation and Translation Involving the Liahona”

    ***   This new article appeared earlier today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   Loren Blake Spendlove, “And the One Pointed the Way: Issues of Interpretation and Translation Involving the Liahona” Abstract: In describing the operation of the spindles in the Liahona, Nephi’s statement that “the one pointed the […]

Tickets for “Witnesses” Are Now on Sale

    ***   Somewhat more than eight years ago, a plainly overconfident pseudonymous critic on a small, extraordinarily nasty, and mostly atheist ex-Mormon message board took it upon himself to prophesy:   “By Jan. 1, 2014 Interpreter will be dead. . . .  Either totally dead or down to token ‘blog’ style postings.” (Bond James Bond, 25 January […]