Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 253

Still cautiously looking to October

    There are a couple of newly posted items on the Interpreter Foundation’s website that you might care to check out.  And, of course, they are available to you at no charge.  This is, after all, what Interpreter does.  But, beyond the devoted efforts of volunteers, we rely upon the kindness of generous donors […]

A Note of Appreciation

    Last week, we officially closed out the weirdest BYU semester with which I’ve ever been involved, whether as student or as teacher.  On the whole, I think that it went about as well as it could have gone.  In my case, though, it went well to a large degree because of two people […]

Trying to Get It Right

    As happens multiple times per week, a new item has appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   In God’s Image and Likeness 2: Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel: Excursus, Bibliography, References & Indexes Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in In God’s Image and Likeness 2: […]

King Benjamin and the Blood of Christ

    I share, here, some notes that I’ve taken from John W. Welch, et al., eds.  Knowing Why: 137 Evidences That the Book of Mormon Is True (American Fork: Covenant Communications, 2017).   [In other words, this blog entry is partially made up of notes taken from a book.  These notes are notes.  From […]

“From the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.”

    Some further notes from Alister E. McGrath, Darwinism and the Divine: Evolutionary Thought and Natural Theology (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011):   So are the structures and symbols of the observed world self-contained and self-referential?  Or might they hint at a deeper structure or level of meaning to the world, transcending what can be known through experience […]

Acts 2, with an axe to grind

    The principal action of Acts 2 occurs on Pentecost, as Acts 2:1 explains:  “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.”   The mainstream Christian holy day of Pentecost, which is still celebrated fifty days after Easter Sunday — meaning, of course, that it too always occurs on […]

Emma, about Joseph

    Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus, Personal Glimpses of the Prophet Joseph Smith (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2009)1856 interview of Emma Smith by Edmund C. Briggs:   While she talked to us the tears flowed from her large, bright eyes like rain, and I could see in every act affection for Joseph.  (28) […]

On temporary disembodiment

    I’m something of a fan of the Claremont philosopher Stephen T. Davis, who is a believing Christian.  Here are some passages that I’ve marked in his book After We Die: Theology, Philosophy, and the Question of Life after Death (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2015.  He’s talking about the period between death and resurrection:   […]

Some jottings on the first chapter of Acts

    I offer here some thoughts that occurred to me as I read Acts 1 this morning.  They regard the literality of the early Christian claim of Christ’s resurrection.  For this blog entry (and for the sake of clarity and freshness), I’ll be using the English Standard Version (ESV) for the English text, unless […]

BYU Education Week this August

    A week or two ago, I signed a contract to speak at BYU Education Week in August of this year.  At this point, of course, I don’t know whether there will be a physical Education Week on the BYU campus.  I’ve been told that those in charge are still moving cautiously forward with […]