Dr. McLaughlin's primary academic interests in patristic theology concern the trinitarian and christological controversies which took place in the fourth and fifth centuries. He has written and presented on the pneumatology of the fourth-century philosopher and theologian Marius Victorinus, as well as on Victorinus's sacramental and mystical theologies.

He also studies the ascetical tradition of the Christian East, especially in the Byzantine tradition, focusing on theological anthropology and contemplative practice. His interests in philosophy include Platonic epistemology and metaphysics up to Samuel Taylor Coleridge. These two interests are bound by the question of the function and purpose of imagination, especially as it mediates between the mind and the senses.