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Owen McLeod, assistant professor of philosophy at Lafayette, and Todd Magnum of the Biblical Theological Seminary, Hatfield, Pa., will debate “Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?” at 7 p.m. Monday, April 16, in Jaqua Auditorium (Room 103), Hugel Science Center. College chaplain Gary Miller will serve as moderator.
The event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Chaplain’s Office and organized by Lafayette Christian Fellowship (LCF).
McLeod joined the Lafayette faculty in 1998. His special interests include ethics, metaethics, and ancient philosophy.
He has published papers in ethics, the history of philosophy, philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, and philosophy of economics. McLeod is co-editor of What Do We Deserve?: A Reader on Justice and Desert published by Oxford University Press in 1998. Other publications include “Is There a Moral Obligation to Obey God?” Philo and “What is Sidgwick’s Dualism of Practical Reason?” in Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, both published in 2000. He presented “Is There a Moral Obligation to Obey God?” at last year’s annual meeting of the Society of Humanist Philosophers and has been a guest speaker at West Chester University.
McLeod is the advisor for Lafayette’s McKelvy House Scholars Program, in which 19 students of high academic achievement and promise reside together in an historic off-campus house and participate in shared intellectual and social activities.
McLeod earned his bachelor’s degree at King’s College London and his Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts. He has held teaching positions at Mount Holyoke College and Yale University.
“I’m participating in this debate because I want to do what I can to foster public discussion of philosophical and theological issues on this campus,” he says. “I expect a lively and good-natured dialogue, and lots of questions from the audience.”
Mangum has been an instructor in historical and systematic theology at Biblical Theological Seminary since 1998. He graduated magna cum laude from Biblical, where he received master of sacred theology (1990), master of divinity (1988), and master of arts in biblical studies (1988) degrees. On May 5, he will earn a Ph.D. in theological studies from Dallas Theological Seminary.
Mangum is a member of the American Academy of Religion and the Evangelical Theological Society, where he has been a regular presenter and contributor. He belongs to several other scholarly societies, including the Calvin Studies Society, Scholars of Early Modern Studies, Church History, Faith and Philosophy, and the Society of Biblical Literature.
At last year’s LCF debate, McLeod debated Pastor Michael Bobick of Calvary Community Church, Phillipsburg, N.J., on “What is Truth?”
This year’s topic stemmed from an LCF Wellness Day survey in which students were invited to write their questions. “Why do bad things happen to good people?” was one of the most common questions.
William Goodrich ’03 explored the nature of moral judgments with Owen McLeod, associate professor of philosophy.