The Mormon Experience Comes to Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – Dan Wotherspoon, executive director of the Sunstone Education Foundation and editor of Sunstone Magazine, will give a talk titled "Of Golden Plates and Global Warming: Translating Mormonism in the Twenty-first Century" on Thursday, Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The lecture, free and open to the public, is part of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity series.

Wotherspoon, a Mormon theologian, will address what he thinks is most appealing about Mormonism, while providing a way for an outsider to see why some of the tradition’s peculiarities “make sense” when seen from within Mormonism’s overarching narratives and first principles.  In doing this, Wotherspoon will address why Mormonism appears to be so conservative while possessing dynamic and unique teachings that can be applied to today’s social issues.

Wotherspoon, a writer for Sunstone Magazine, a Mormon periodical, since 1993, became the editor in 2001.  He earned his Ph.D. in religion from Claremont Graduate University, his M.A. in religious studies from Arizona State University, and his B.A in philosophy from Brigham Young University.

Wotherspoon previously taught philosophy and ethics at Salt Lake Community College and Utah Valley State College. Following his service as a full-time missionary in the Washington Seattle Mission, he taught senior couple and senior sister missionaries for two and a half years at the Provo Missionary Training Center. He lives with his wife and two children in Tooele, Utah.

Sunstone Magazine is a progressive Mormon journal that has taken the lead in bringing Mormonism into constructive engagement with contemporary culture.

Sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, Deitchman Family Lectures explore "the place of religious and spiritual life in a world that is sometimes at odds with faith, other times in search of it, and always at work reshaping it."

About The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture:

Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College's commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope.  The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.