Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 260

Back to Designing a Temple for Dubai

    I’ve experienced just a bit of pushback since suggesting, a few days ago, that the design of the forthcoming Dubai United Arab Emirates Temple should, ideally, draw on the rich artistic and architectural heritage of the Islamic world in which it will sit.  (See my “Designing a Temple for Dubai.”)  I had thought […]

Mount St. Helens and the Book of Mormon

    I’ll share a passage here from Jeff Wynn and Louise Wynn, Everyone is a Believer: The Growing Convergence of Science and Religion (2019).  Dr. Jeffrey C. Wynn, a self-described “recovering atheist” and convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is a research geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) who is currently […]

“Glory, Fall, and Judgment”

    Newly posted on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:   In God’s Image and Likeness 2 Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel: Genesis 9: Glory, Fall, and Judgment Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in In God’s Image and Likeness 2: Enoch, Noah, and the Tower of Babel (2014) […]

“Make No Mistake”

    As I do every year at this season, I share a poem by the late Pulitzer-Prize-winning novelist, short-story writer, and poet John Updike (1932-2009) that I have long loved:   “Seven Stanzas At Easter” Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body; if the cells’ dissolution did not […]

“The Four Proven or Minimal Facts Argument” for the Resurrection of Jesus

    An apologetic that is sometimes used, particularly by Evangelical Protestants (such as William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, and Michael Licona), to defend the idea of the resurrection of Christ is what is often called “the four proven or minimal facts argument.”  I base the following notes on the summary of that argument given […]

Truly, he is risen!

      Χριστός ἀνέστη!   Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!   In Greek, which is the original language of the New Testament — and in equivalent phrases in other languages influenced by Greek Orthodox usage — it is customary to greet one another on Easter Sunday with the phrase Khristos anesti!  To which the traditional response is Alithos […]

Extrabiblical References to Jesus?

    Continuing with my temporary theme of the genuine historicity of Jesus, I reproduce here a column that I published in the Deseret News on 8 January 2015:   On Christmas morning, I published a column here that discussed, among other things, whether Jesus really existed. But Christmas mornings are busy, and that column […]

Jesus mythicism, yet again

    I published this article in the Deseret News on Christmas Day 2014.  So, for obvious reasons, it’s couched as a Christmas column.  Nonetheless, since it is relevant to the question of the genuine historical existence of Jesus of Nazareth, which was raised by a reader earlier today, I reproduce it here:   Jesus […]

Thoughts for Holy Saturday

    I published this column in the Deseret News on Thursday, 21 April 2011.  It would have been more appropriate for me to have re-posted it two days ago, but, to coin an entirely original phrase, better late than never.  In any event, it’s mostly about “Holy Saturday”:   Today is Maundy Thursday. The […]

Revisiting an agnostic’s argument for the existence of Jesus

    A reader of this blog has chosen to spend at least a portion of his Easter weekend trying to share the good news that Jesus is merely a fictional character.  He reminds me of this column that I published in the Deseret News for 12 July 2012:   Bart Ehrman is a respected […]