303: James McLachlan: Compelling Mormonism Pt. 2

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2011

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

James McLachlan is a professor of philosophy and religion at Western Carolina University, and is actively involved in academic discussions of Mormonism as a co-chair of the American Academy of Religion’s Mormon Studies Group and a board member and past president of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology. But to overplay his academic bona fides is possibly a mistake, because, as this interview with longtime friend and Mormon Stories contributor Dan Wotherspoon reveals, Jim is the opposite of the stuffy scholar stereotype. In this two-part interview, his incredibly quick and inquisitive mind is on full display, but it’s his good humor and ability to use observations from everyday life, great literature, and important films to elucidate powerful philosophical and religious questions that will surely captivate listeners. Among other discussions, through Jim's lenses Mormonism’s fully engaged God—as Sterling McMurrin described: a God with his"own problems"—comes alive and becomes a highly compelling alternative to traditional Christian views that borrow so heavily from Greek ideas about the nature of perfection. Hear, too, Jim's wonderful take on why those of us who experience many of Mormonism’s theological ideas differently from many in the mainstream might still feel confident in answering temple recommend questions affirmatively.

Transcript

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0:26.6	at MormonStories.org.
0:31.0	Welcome back Mormon Stories listeners.
0:32.9	We're moving into a second segment here with Jim McLaughlin.
0:36.3	I trust that you've all enjoyed the first section where we got to know his life and certainly
0:42.7	the beginnings of his philosophical worldview and I thought it was a beautiful way that he
0:47.6	closed with a testimony of sorts and I definitely want to move towards that again by the end
0:52.8	of this.
0:53.8	I'd forgotten to mention, actually, Jim might be familiar to some of you for another reason
0:58.7	and that was from a 2007 Sonsman presentation that he did with Tom Kimball of Signature
1:05.5	Books and it was called Do You Have a Testimony of . . . . and it was basically Tom and Jim
1:13.0	discussing about how two people who've kind of looked at the same questions have decided
1:19.4	differently on the ability to say yes to temple-recommend questions and so I definitely
1:25.3	want to move into that towards the end.
1:27.6	But for now, Jim, if you don't mind, I'd love to dislead us into a couple of areas of
1:32.6	your philosophy that I find fascinating and that would be the materials that you wrestled
1:37.9	with in your dissertation and simply that whole desire to be God's staff and then after
1:43.0	that I want to talk with you about one of the favorite articles and the themes of that
1:48.0	article that I ever published at Sunstone was working with you on this sort of idea of
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