Mack C. Stirling

MACK C. STIRLING is Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, Michigan. He served in the Oslo Norway Mission (1971–73). He and his wife, Dixie, are the parents of four daughter

Scandals, Scapegoats, and the Cross: An Interview with René Girard

Articles/Essays – Volume 43, No. 1

Note: Mack Stirling, Director of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Munson Medical Center, Traverse City, Michigan, and Scott Burton, director of the LDS Institute of Religion at Ohio State University, conducted this interview with René Girard,…

Violence in the Scriptures: Mormonism and the Cultural Theory of René Girard

Articles/Essays – Volume 43, No. 1

Many who revere the scriptures as the inspired word of God are nonetheless disturbed by them. The scriptures contain inconsistencies and outright contradictions. Particularly disturbing for many are scriptural portrayals of God as wrathful, vengeful, and violent. This article will introduce these problems with several examples from the Old Testament, then present a succinct overview of René Girard’s theory of culture because of its unique value in helping us to interpret these difficult texts. The final portion of the paper will present selected texts from the LDS canon in light of Girard’s theory.