Daniel C. Peterson's Blog, page 96

Rev. Sidney Rigdon, Rev. Solomon Spalding, and the Book of Mormon

    For many, many decades until relatively recently, it was assumed by virtually everybody who rejected the Book of Mormon as an authentic work of ancient scripture — which is to say, by virtually everybody who ever gave the subject a passing thought — that, while it must have been written in the nineteenth […]

“Temples of the Imagination”

    In cooperation with Verdant Press and Eborn Books, the Interpreter Foundation has just published an unusual new book by Jeffrey Thayne and Nathan Richardson under the title of Temples of the Imagination: AI-Generated Temples, Human-Generated Insights.  It holds special interest for me because, at one very youthful point, I briefly dreamed of being an […]

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake”

    While, in terms of their form, Matthew 5:10 and 5:11-12 may seem at first glance to constitute two distinct “beatitudes,” it’s pretty obvious from their parallel, even synonymous, content that they’re really a single unit.  The second portion doesn’t contain a specific statement of reward because it’s simply a restatement of the first […]

One of the Restoration’s Greatest Contributions

    I’m back to reading Richard S. Van Wagoner, Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994).  Here’s a passage that caught my attention, discussing the revelation on the three degrees of glory that is now included in the Doctrine and Covenants as Section 76.  It highlights one of […]

“Moving Beyond the Historicity Question”?

    A new article went up today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship:  “Moving Beyond the Historicity Question, or a Manifesto for Future Book of Mormon Research,” written by Newell D. Wright: Review of Daniel Becerra, Amy Easton-Flake, Nicholas J. Frederick, and Joseph M. Spencer, Book of Mormon Studies: An Introduction and […]

The moving finger writes and, having writ, moves on

    As I post this from Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, it’s still just barely 23 March 2023 back in the United States.  So I’m still within the parameters of carrying on my tradition — no doubt tiresome to many and laughably absurd to a few — of posting my annual tribute […]

An inadequate note to a niece and two nephews

    I just sent the note below to a niece and two nephews, the three children of my late brother and his now also-departed wife, and, indirectly perhaps, to their children and grandchildren.  I thought that somebody else might also find a little value in it, or take some comfort from it.   I […]

Down on the Coastal Plain

    An article of mine appeared in Meridian Magazine a few hours ago:  “Understanding the Synagogues of Jesus’ Day.”   ***   We left Jerusalem this morning and drove down to Caesarea Maritima, to the Herodian aqueduct that fed it from the north, and then to Joppa (or Jaffa, or Yafo).  Joppa is one […]

“Why seek ye the living among the dead?”

    My sister-in-law, my brother’s widow, passed away very early this morning after a fairly brief but very serious illness that cascaded into multiple crises with astonishing speed.  If I have the time and the time zones right, she missed the eleventh anniversary of the death of her husband, my brother, by just two […]

Shema Yisrael!

    We allowed our group a short day today, granting them time on their own to wander during the afternoon in the Old City and/or to do the “ramparts walk” partially around it.  For the early evening, we secured ten tickets for them for the “Great Bridge Route” near the Western Wall.  That covered […]