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A note on some (rather atypical) recent reading

A note on some (rather atypical) recent reading

Last updated on: July 30, 2026 at 11:29 pm by Dan Peterson

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A note on some (rather atypical) recent reading 2026-07-30T23:29:12-06:00 Dan Peterson

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Rembrandt, “Abraham and Isaac” (1635)
Wikimedia Commons public domain image

I failed to mention, yesterday, the appearance of a previously-published hardcopy article online: Reprint: “Exploring the Akedah,” written by Daniel T. Ellsworth

Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Abraham and His Family in Scripture, History, and Tradition, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, John S. Thompson, Matthew L. Bowen, and David R. Seely. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/abraham-and-his-family.

“In discussions of world religions, it is common to hear Judaism, Islam, and Christianity labeled the “Abrahamic religions” because their sacred texts point to Abraham as a common religious ancestor. In addition to this usage of the term, however, Latter-day Saints employ Abrahamic in a sense that is separate from questions of religious pedigree: we use it to describe a particular quality of an individual’s experience of faith. In this sense, Abrahamic generally harks back to Abraham’s binding of Isaac, known in Judaism as the Akedah.”

And this went up today on the website of the Interpreter Foundation, where nothing new ever goes up: The Interpreter Insights Podcast — July 30, 2026: “Theology as Pretext,” with Terry Hutchinson and John Gee:

In the July 30, 2026, 2026 episode of The Interpreter Insights Podcast, our host Terry Hutchinson interviews John Gee about his recent Interpreter book review about theology and Biblical studies. They review the original history of theology from the Greek philosophers and its impact on biblical studies and biblical religions. The author of the reviewed works proposes a methodology for studying the Bible; which, when strictly followed, demonstrates weaknesses in the application of theology to biblical studies and those who follow it.

I’m told that the community that erected this idol also venerates Candace Owens as a demigoddess. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

It’s gratifying to see Candace Owens achieve the level of credibility among most people that she so richly deserves and that she has worked so hard to achieve. The illustrious Babylon Bee has published a must-read investigative report: “Here’s A Complete List Of Every One Of Candace Owens’ Theories That Proved To Be Correct”

I like the take of this article, written by Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, on Ms. Owens. It was published back in February, before she began to turn her attention to the “Mormon Mafia,” but I think that it has her exactly right: “The Disgraceful Ravings of Candace Owens: It is a symptom of our time that such malevolent buffoonery is rewarded with a huge audience.”

Shiprock (Tsé Bitʼaʼí), Navajo Nation, New Mexico, is a volcanic “plug” that probably formed about twenty-five million years ago below the surface of the earth and then gradually emerged because of erosion.

My wife and I often like to relax, just before bedtime, with a good, wholesome murder mystery program (often, but not always, British). I read relatively little fiction, but very occasionally I’ve been known to binge on mystery authors, and I concluded my most recent such binge just prior to the end of our stay for most of this past month in Alaska and British Columbia (on which, more immediately below). I would say that I like such mysteries late at night because they help me to switch my mind from more serious things that would otherwise hinder my going to sleep. And that would be true. But the fact is that I simply like them. They give me something fun to anticipate for the end of the day.

Many years ago, I read and enjoyed one (or possibly even two) Navajo mystery novels by the late Tony Hillerman (1925-2008). After his death, his daughter, Anne Hillerman, decided to take up the torch and continue his tales of the two Navajo tribal policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, and to add the tribal policewoman Bernadette Manuelito, and I’ve just finished reading all of her novels in (with one exception) the order of their publication:

Spider Woman’s Daughter (2013)
Rock with Wings (2015)
Song of the Lion (2017)
Cave of Bones (2018)
The Tale Teller (2019)
Stargazer (2021)
The Sacred Bridge (2022)
The Way of the Bear (2023)
Lost Birds (2024)
Shadow of the Solstice (2025)

We have thoroughly enjoyed the AMC series Dark Winds, which is set in the world of the Hillermans — Anne is one of its producers, as was the late Robert Redford — and which features Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito.

I actually read Shadow of the Solstice first among Anne Hillerman’s novels, because my wife had just read it and owned it on Kindle. Then I decided to read another, Spider Woman’s Daughter, and, having enjoyed it, I simply kept going. The last that I read was Lost Birds, which has missing and murdered Native American women as its major sub-theme. (They are the “lost birds” of the title.)

Nearing the end of our trip to Alaska and Canada, my wife inherited from one of those who traveled with us — first, it was family and then, as they returned home, some friends joined us — a paperback copy of James Patterson and Andrew Bourelle, The Texas Murders (New York, Boston, and London: Little Brown and Company, 2025), which is billed as “A Texas Ranger Thriller.” I finished The Texas Murders very, very, very early this morning, while at the hospital for the scheduled major surgery of a family member. (Sorry, Peterson Obsession Board. That’s all you’re going to get about it, so you’ll just have to free associate, with malice, as you usually do.) And guess what the novel’s focus was?

there’s an under investigated epidemic of missing and murdered Native American women.

“There isn’t even a clear estimate of how many women we’re talking about,” Carlos says. . . . “Sometimes Indian women are misclassified as Hispanic or Asian, or don’t get logged into federal databases for whatever reason. Some estimates say as many as five thousand Native women go missing or are murdered every years.” (65-66)

Given how recently The Texas Murders was published, I’m assuming that the phenomenon cited above is described with reasonable accuracy and that it served as part of the inspiration for the novel’s plot. And, by the way, the summer solstice is a significant factor in the story.

I’d never read anything by the super-prolific James Patterson, though I had certainly been aware of him (and of his phenomenal success) for many years. Now I have, although I suspect that his co-author, Andrew Bourelle, whose name appears on the novel’s cover in much smaller letters, did most of the writing on this one.

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