Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 181

“Women and the Priesthood in the Contemporary Church” (and Other Interesting Stuff)

    As many of you are undoubtedly aware, the Interpreter Foundation will almost certainly be defunct by 1 January 2014.  In the meantime, though, we continue to sputter along.  It’s the kind of death you sometimes see in grand opera — think of the “Liebestod,” from Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde — that goes […]

The Qur’an on the Fall of Lucifer

    Below is my translation of Qur’an 2:30-38.  It is not identical to the rendering of the same passage in M. A. S. Abdel Haleem’s 2005 translation of The Qur’an for the Oxford World’s Classics series, but I freely acknowledge that it’s very similar.  That’s not coincidental.  I like Abdel Haleem’s translation; it’s the […]

“It is real in I am now no make believe”

    It started off as a pretty busy Saturday.  We had a meeting — virtually, online — of the board of the Interpreter Foundation.  There are interesting (and good) things on the horizon, and the Foundation, I’m happy to report, is in pretty good shape.   Unfortunately, we also officially bade adieu today to […]

“The Book of Mormon as Anti-type of the Brass Serpent”

    This new item, by Matthew Scott Stenson, went up earlier today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:   ““Wherefore, for This Cause”: The Book of Mormon as Anti-type of the Brass Serpent” Abstract: Nephi1 represents the sacred record that becomes the Book of Mormon as a new brass serpent to heal the nations. Nephi’s […]

In which I nobly attempt to reassure certain critics of the Church

    Here is an item that was posted earlier today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   “Hearing the Voice of the Lord in the Mind: When Ministering and Serving” (Part Two of a Series Compiled by Dennis B. Horne)   ***   I like this opinion piece, which appeared (of all places) […]

“I think life is basically worthless.”

    Here are a trio of interesting items regarding the recent three-part Netflix documentary Murder Among the Mormons:   “Your friend just watched ‘Murder Among the Mormons’ and has questions; historian Richard Turley is here to help”   “What Latter-day Saint history experts thought of ‘Murder Among the Mormons’: New Netflix docuseries recounts the […]

“Materialists and madmen never have doubts.”

    ***   But, first:   Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   Audio Roundtable: Come, Follow Me Doctrine and Covenants Lesson 12 “All Things Must Be Done in Order” (D&C 27-28) The discussants for the Interpreter Radio Roundtable on Come, Follow Me Doctrine and Covenants Lesson 12, “All Things Must Be Done in Order” (which focuses on […]

“The Crown of Creation”

    ***   This piece, by David R. Seely and Jo Ann Seely, went up just a few minutes ago on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   “The Crown of Creation” Abstract: The Seelys discuss the well-known concept of the universe as a temple, and link the creation story to the temple drama. They explore […]

Addendum 3: Some English Loanwords from Arabic and Persian

    In both editions of my book Abraham Divided, I devoted several pages to words that the English language has borrowed from Arabic (and, if I recall correctly, to at least one word borrowed from Persian).  For whatever reason, I find etymologies fascinating.  And I can justify their inclusion in this book because I […]

“You heard that hundreds of years ago, in the pre-existence!”

  ***   I spent part of this morning and this afternoon involved in the funeral for a French sister (born in Marseilles, in January 1928).  Having converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in immediately postwar France at the age of nineteen — she was baptized during the month of December, […]