I published the article below in the Deseret News on 15 June 2017: Critics of religious faith often like to compare it, unfavorably, to science. Science, they say, has cured polio and malaria, sent humans to the moon, created powerful computers and plumbed the secrets of distant stars and galaxies. Religion has done none of these things. However, this is a profoundly misguided argument. For one thing, it suggests that only such accomplishments as these have value.... Read more
A new article — this one by Clifford P. Jones — has appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: “The Prophets Who Wrote the Book of Omni” Abstract: The brief accounts written by Omni, Amaron, Chemish, Abinadom, and Amaleki, taken alone, don’t always inspire confidence in their righteousness. Nevertheless, when the specific words used by these men and all relevant context are taken into consideration, it’s reasonable to conclude that each of these authors... Read more
I was pleased to learn a day or so ago that Nick Galieti and Jared Riddick, joined by Stephen Smoot, recently recorded an installment of their Rare Possessions Podcast in memory of William J. Hamblin that was devoted to a topic to which Bill made significant contributions. (One of his principal areas of academic focus was ancient and medieval military history.) The podcast runs slightly more than twenty-eight (28) minutes: In Honor of William J. Hamblin –... Read more
A brief article in the January/February 2015 issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review reported on an exhibit that had just concluded at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, entitled In Remembrance of Me: Feasting with the Dead in the Ancient Middle East. The artifact most prominently featured in the exhibit was the Katumuwa Stela, a basalt slab set up more than 2700 years ago in what is now southeastern Turkey, to memorialize a man named, unsurprisingly, Katumuwa. The Aramaic... Read more
Some of you may be at least vaguely familiar with the painfully sad story of the actor Christopher Reeve (1952-2004), a talented athlete who studied at Cornell University and at the Juilliard School, attained star status in the title role of the Superman films of 1978-1987, and then, in late May 1995, was severely injured in an equestrian accident that left him a quadriplegic at the age of not quite forty-three. (He responded with remarkable courage, but he was... Read more
I apparently should have given them a title, but I didn’t. So we ended up with this rather unwieldy thing: “Remembering co-author Bill Hamblin’s pursuit of sharing about the world’s religions” I’m pleased, though, that the online version of the article includes a baker’s dozen of the photographs that Bill furnished for prior columns. They were often very valuable. This is one of the respects in which my solo continuation of the Hamblin/Peterson column will... Read more
My wife and I watched the 2019 documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice tonight. I’ve been a devoted Linda Ronstadt fan for most of my life — I suppose that, for a while at least, I had a crush on her — so I really, really enjoyed it. (I knew almost all of the songs by heart.) It was fun, too, to be reminded of the Los Angeles folk rock scene that was so important to me when... Read more
Surely, you’re saying to yourself, this series will eventually find an end! And, in fact, that’s what I’ve been thinking for quite some time. But interesting material continues to appear, so I press on. This may well be the last installment, of course. But I’ve thought so before . . . Anyway, the impetus for this current entry comes from a new comment from Peter J Reilly, a thoroughly non-Latter-day Saint contributor to Forbes who is a specialist... Read more
Most of you will recall this brief announcement from the end of last year’s October general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “President Nelson Announces Plans for Special Celebration of First Vision” I’m excited for what will be coming. All of us at the Interpreter Foundation are looking forward to this next year. *** This morning, the Interpreter Foundation launches a new series of blog entries, kindly contributed by Dennis... Read more
On this, the first day of the new year 2020, I woke up thinking of Joseph Smith’s First Vision. President Russell M. Nelson has declared this year a bicentennial, commemorating that great theophany. With that fact in mind, I reprise here a column of mine that appeared in the Deseret News on 23 March 2017: Some years ago, two Latter-day Saint writers arrived separately at the conclusion that Joseph Smith’s First Vision probably occurred on Sunday, March... Read more
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