Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 87

“He brought heaven and earth together”

    The latest iteration of the script for our next theatrical film, Six Days in August, arrived earlier today.  The film will focus on the succession of the Twelve to leadership of the Church after the assassination of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on 27 June 1844.  My wife and I look forward very much […]

Am I there yet?

    I was otherwise occupied yesterday, so I failed to note the appearance of two new articles on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: ““They Shall Be Scattered Again”: Some Notes on JST Genesis 50:24–25, 33–35” was written by Matthew L. Bowen. Abstract: This article examines the extension of the etiological wordplay on the name […]

It’s my history, too.

    For a long time, I thought of the history of England, Scotland, and Wales as their history, the history of a foreign country or countries.  And, of course, in a very real and obvious sense it is the history of foreign places, relative to me.  In another sense, though, it is my own […]

Praying with Jane Austen

    I’m a real Jane Austen fan.  Once upon a time, in fact, I worried (half seriously or, anyway, perhaps three percent seriously) that my great affection for her novels (and for every movie based upon them or upon her, excepting only and decisively the execrable 1940 Pride and Prejudice, co-written by Aldous Huxley […]

Is the Church a hotbed of child abuse? Compared to what?

    Some new items have gone up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: Conference Talks: Dualism is Dead! Long Live Dualism! presented at the 2016 Second Interpreter Science & Mormonism Symposium: “Body, Brain, Mind, and Spirit” on Saturday, 12 March 2016, by James E. Faulconer The New Testament in Context Lesson 27:  “He Is […]

Tales of the Gloucester Crypt

    Our focus today was on the city of Gloucester, and most particular on the city’s cathedral.  When I think of Gloucester, I’m afraid that the very first thing that occurs to me is Richard III, who reigned from 1483 until his death — the last English king to die in combat and the […]

A pretty ludicrous counterexplanation of Christ’s resurrection

    In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1890  novel The Sign of the Four, Sherlock Holmes explains his method as a private detective to Dr. Watson:  “When you have eliminated the impossible,” he says, “whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” If a person is determined to disbelieve in the proposition that Jesus rose […]

The older William Law

    With others who remained of our tour group, we walked up Gloucester Road this morning, then down Cromwell Road past the magnificent Natural History Museum.  We turned left on Exhibition Road to the Hyde Park Chapel, where we attended sacrament meeting.  I was curious as to whether I would meet anybody there that […]

England’s “National Valhalla”

    Well, our tour is at an end, and some of our number have already headed off.  All good things must pass.  (In this world, anyway.) We did just two stops today, but they were both fairly lengthy, and both focused on extraordinarily important religious sites.  (In response to no discernible demand from the […]

Reflections on Hampton Court Palace

    Two new articles appeared earlier today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “Doctrine and Covenants 21: Metanarrative of the Restoration,” written by Steven L. Olsen Abstract: Joseph Smith dictated Doctrine and Covenants 21 at the inaugural meeting of the Church of Jesus Christ on April 6, 1830. The present study examines the literary craftsmanship of the […]