Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 230

“Temples All the Way Down”

    Another article has gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation, appearing now in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.  This piece was written by one Daniel C. Peterson:   “Temples All the Way Down: Some Notes on the Mi‘raj of Muhammad” Abstract: In this article, Daniel C. Peterson describes […]

“If You Could Hie to Kolob”

    This passage from John D. Barrow, The Book of Universes: Exploring the Limits of the Cosmos (New York and London: W. W. Norton and Company, 2011) — Dr. Barrow is a professor of mathematical sciences at Cambridge University — reminded me of something:   [T]here is a geographical dimension in the myths about […]

Revision 1.10. “What survived from Second Temple Judaism”

    The new gospel preached by Jesus and Paul and the other apos­tles was, in a certain sense, the universal reformed Judaism of which Hellenistic reformers—at least those of the better sort—had long dreamed. The blessings of Abraham were now available to all, provided only that they accepted Jesus and his teachings. “There is,” […]

A case for the resurrection of Christ (3)

    Here, I conclude the short little outline summary that I began here and continued here.  These notes are drawn from presentations given by the well-known and widely respected Evangelical Protestant philosopher William Lane Craig:  He offers four basic propositions that, he says, are almost universally accepted by all scholars of the New Testament, […]

“If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?”

    18 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. 19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. 20 And they straightway (εὐθέως) left their nets, and followed him. […]

Very sad news from my home town of San Gabriel, California

        Chris Miasnik kindly called my attention to a horribly sad story that apparently began during the early hours of Saturday morning in San Gabriel, California, the town in which I grew up:   USA Today:  “Fire destroys much of 249-year-old church in California”   San Gabriel Valley Tribune:  “4-alarm fire destroys most of […]

A case for the resurrection of Christ (2)

    Having laid down a kind of preface in a previous post, I now commence with a brief outline of a minimal case for the rationality of belief in Jesus’ resurrection as summarized by the prominent Evangelical Protestant philosopher William Lane Craig in numerous public lectures (several of which are available online).  I’ll be […]

“Utah Area presidency urges Latter-day Saints in the state to wear masks in public”

    This ought to settle the matter:   “Church leaders ask Latter-day Saints in Utah to wear face masks to fight COVID-19: Church’s Utah Area Presidency says ‘please join with us now in common purpose for the blessing and benefit of all’”   Please keep in mind that, according to a fair number of […]

Revision 1.9 “Judaism survived, despite the odds”

    Paul Johnson well summarizes the catastrophic changes in the fortunes of world Jewry: In the short-term perspective of the second century AD, the Jews appeared to have been a powerful national and religious group which had courted ruin, and achieved it. During most of the first century, the Jews not only constituted a […]

Revision 1.8. “Masada and Its Sequel”

    The last Jewish stronghold was the spectacular mountain for­tress-palace of Masada, 1300 feet above the barren wilderness of the Dead Sea. It’s still possible today to stand upon Masada and see the outlines of the siege walls left behind by Flavius Silva and his Tenth Legion in the arid, hot soil. The Romans […]