Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 270

A few hasty, coronavirus-inspired reflections

    In the midst of a global pandemic during which public religious services are being heavily reduced and even canceled, wouldn’t it be great to be affiliated with a religious movement in which, although supported by the church, devotional and instructional life was actually centered on the home?  A movement that has invested enormously […]

“Islamic Guidelines on Covid-19 [Coronavirus]”

    I received the item below as an email from the California Islamic University, an innovative attempt to provide an Islamic higher education with a distinctly American or at least Western flavor.  Its campus is located in Fullerton, California — not too terribly far from my own native stomping grounds in southern California.  I’m […]

“We haven’t let anyone take us in.”

    Occasionally, when I’m reading online comments from some of the more embittered, alienated, cynical, and angry critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I’m powerfully reminded of a passage from near the conclusion of The Last Battle, which is, itself, the final volume in C.S. Lewis’s wonderful series “The Chronicles of Narnia”: […]

Interpreter, Moses, and Ancient Money

    A new article in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship has just been posted for your enjoyment.  As always, thanks to the wonderful generosity of donors and volunteers, it is accessible to you free of charge.  To modify slightly the words of Herodotus that have often served as something of […]

More on Medical Science, Faith, and Prayer

    Responding to my blog entry of Thursday entitled “Medicine Versus the Priesthood?” a reader of this blog who calls himself “The Last Danite” has provided a very useful quotation from Dallin H. Oaks, who is currently serving as first counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. […]

Medicine Versus the Priesthood?

    Particularly in the wake of announcements about — to choose some prominent examples — the coronavirus-driven withdrawal of missionaries from certain areas, the closing of the Conference Center to the public for the approaching annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the suspension of classroom teaching at Brigham […]

BYU responds to the coronavirus

    I have to admit that I’m not surprised, in view of the announcement from Utah Governor Gary Herbert (“Utah governor limits mass gatherings in state to 100 people: Multiple universities announce move to online classes”):   March 12 Situation Update Consistent with the CES guidelines issued last night, BYU has made the following decisions. […]

On “Self-Control”

    We’re just back from the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City, where we attended a performance of the musical Dear Evan Hansen by a touring company with a heavy contingent of Canadian actors.  It deals with important themes of youth depression and suicide.  I was somewhat surprised, given recent news, that the theater […]

“Enemy-Occupied Territory”

    “Teachings and Testimony of the First Vision: Joseph Fielding McConkie Discusses the First Vision and Tolerance”: Part 14 of a Series Compiled by Dennis B. Horne   ***   My wife and I continue to read a passage every night from A Year with C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works.  Here is a […]

Geology and Third Nephi (15): “Broken and Scattered Rocks” (Part Two)

    We still have a little bit more to do as I work my way through Bart J. Kowallis, “In the Thirty and Fourth Year: A Geologist’s View of the Great Destruction in 3 Nephi,” BYU Studies 37/3 (1997-1998):   Professor Kowallis describes the famous 1883 eruption of Krakatoa as “moderately large” and, in terms of […]