Skip to main content
Home
Faith is By Choice An LDS Faith Blog

Sic Et Non

Marratan ukhra fi umm al-dunya

2 months 2 weeks ago
  But what, you will naturally be asking yourself, is this clown doing back in Egypt yet again, when he was just there at the end of last year?  It’s a good question.  Do I simply love jet lag? Let me back up just a bit before I give you The Answer. From what I’ve […]
Dan Peterson

Exclusivism, brokenness, and good health

2 months 2 weeks ago
  As I say, I re-read C. S. Lewis’s book Mere Christianity on the flight over.  It has been a fair while since I’ve read that particular book, and here are a couple of the many passages that struck me.  I supply no page references both because there are multiple editions and because I was […]
Dan Peterson

One of the greatest of all logicians on life after death

2 months 3 weeks ago
  First of all, I need to explain that, for the next ten days or so, I will have limited and only occasional access to the internet and, for three of those days, very possibly none at all.  So my ability to interact with people in the comments section to this blog, and to respond […]
Dan Peterson

But why?

2 months 3 weeks ago
  Here is something from more than twelve years ago that you might find helpful as you begin your “Come, Follow Me” study of the Book of Mormon this year:  “Learn more about the Book of Mormon witnesses: Read short biographies of each of the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses” And please take a moment […]
Dan Peterson

“Converging on Nahom”

2 months 3 weeks ago
  Two new articles went up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “The Nahom Convergence Reexamined: The Eastward Trail, Burial of the Dead, and the Ancient Borders of Nihm,” written by Neal Rappleye Abstract: For decades, several Latter-day Saint scholars have maintained that there is a convergence between the location of Nahom in […]
Dan Peterson

Cornucopia

2 months 3 weeks ago
  This just went up on the website of the Interpreter Foundation:  “The Temple: Ancient and Restored:  ‘The Cosmic Mountain in Islamic Tradition,'” written by Daniel C. Peterson Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Ancient and Restored, Proceedings of the Second Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference “The […]
Dan Peterson

Every Member A Missionary: Here’s Some Important Help

2 months 3 weeks ago
  For Christmas, a neighbor gave us a new book by her brother.  The book is Gary C. Lawrence, Millions Believe As We Do, But Haven’t Yet Found the Church:  Conversation Ideas from a National Poll.  Gary Lawrence is an active Latter-day Saint — currently, I believe, an ordinance worker in the Newport Beach California […]
Dan Peterson

“I’ve seen them both, and they’re not the same.”

2 months 3 weeks ago
  I’ve recently shared three or four passages here with you from Hadley Vlahos, The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life’s Final Moments (New York: Ballantine Books, 2023).  Here’s another one that I really liked, and that I think you might find interesting, as well: I’ve seen just as many patients who aren’t religious and don’t […]
Dan Peterson

“The In-Between”

2 months 3 weeks ago
  As I mentioned in a recent blog entry, somebody in Modesto, California — I don’t know who it was — sent me a copy of a small and very accessible book a few days before Christmas: Hadley Vlahos, The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life’s Final Moments (New York: Ballantine Books, 2023).  Ms. Vlahos is […]
Dan Peterson

Toward Lives Well-Lived

2 months 4 weeks ago
  Our last church meetings of 2023 were, I thought, quite good.  Our first sacrament meeting speaker today was a young woman from our ward who has interrupted her studies at Brigham Young University to accept a call to the Chile Antofagasta Mission.   She spoke quite well and will, I think, be a wonderful […]
Dan Peterson

God knows and speaks to individuals

2 months 4 weeks ago
  I would like to commend two recent blog entries by the redoubtable Jeff Lindsay to your attention.  It seems particularly fitting to do so as we’re about to enter a new year for the “Come, Follow Me” curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a curriculum that will be focused on […]
Dan Peterson

An attempt at a reminder

2 months 4 weeks ago
  My day yesterday (Friday) was completely booked, from morning until late at night, and I posted nothing.  Which means that I failed to note that a new article appeared yesterday in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship.  And it was just a bit unusual:  For the first time in the history […]
Dan Peterson

Approaching the turning of the year

3 months ago
  I can’t say that I’m even slightly surprised by these findings, which are reported by the impressive Stephen Cranney.  I’ve always tended to regard the self-description “I’m spiritual, but not religious” as rather vacuous.  But it’s good — albeit, yes, admittedly quite sad — to see them backed by apparently solid data:  “Less church, […]
Dan Peterson

A few gathered posies

3 months ago
  Even at Christmas, the Interpreter Foundation continues to produce.  Here, for example, is a sextet of very recent new items: “Conference Talks:  Recovering the Language of Purity after the First Revolt“ The fourth “Temple on Mount Zion” Conference was held on Saturday, 10 November 2018 in the Tanner Building at Brigham Young University, Provo, […]
Dan Peterson

“Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”

3 months ago
  Every year since I launched this blog, I have called attention to some of my favorite Christmas music.  I did it a little bit this year, too, though not to the extent that I’ve previously done and not nearly so systematically.  I realize, obviously, that we’re past Christmas now.  But it suddenly dawned on […]
Dan Peterson

New Beginnings?

3 months ago
  Christmas is winding down.  In certain areas of the globe, indeed, the Christmas holiday is already receding into the past — and a time that is often associated with resolutions for the future is rapidly approaching. Many of you, no doubt, follow the same brilliant labor-saving technique that I do:  I simply dust the […]
Dan Peterson

The continuing battle of darkness against the light

3 months ago
  At the request of the Deseret News, I published the brief message that follows back on 16 December 2010, under the title of “Christmas in the Holy Land — somber, yet triumphant.”  I wish that I could report that conditions in the Holy Land today, thirteen years later, were better.  Obviously, though, I cannot. […]
Dan Peterson

Two Hundred and Eighteen Years Ago, Today

3 months ago
    Today is the 218th anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith, in Sharon, Vermont.  Perhaps, had he not been born so close to the super-holiday of Christmas, his birthday would have been widely commemorated among contemporary Latter-day Saints in the manner of, say, Pioneer Day.  I rather doubt it, but perhaps.  […]
Dan Peterson

“Hail th’incarnate Deity”!

3 months ago
  I published the following Christmas-themed article in Meridian Magazine last night:  “Mary’s Unique Role in Our Salvation”  I hope that some of you will find it acceptable.  In this connection, you might enjoy BYU’s female a cappella ensemble, Noteworthy, singing “Mary, Did You Know?” along with guest artist Peter Hollens.  I surely did.  And […]
Dan Peterson

Christmas, the Israelite Tabernacle, and the Gospel of John

3 months 1 week ago
  New on the website of the Interpreter Foundation: “The Temple: Ancient and Restored: How John’s Gospel Portrays Jesus as the Way of the Temple” was written by John S. Thompson Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in The Temple: Ancient and Restored, Proceedings of the Second Interpreter Matthew B. […]
Dan Peterson
Checked
8 hours 58 minutes ago
Subscribe to Sic Et Non feed