I’m finding this discussion on “flourishing and the good life” between David Brooks of the New York Times and Miroslav Volf, systematic theologian of Yale Divinity School, compelling. I say this not because I agree with all that either man says or stands for–though I find each man a stimulating thinker–but because it’s gratifying to see a thoughtful conversation on the meaning of humanity at a place like Yale.
It’s not surprising in this age of ascendant secularism that a divinity school center, the Yale Center for Faith & Culture, would need to host such a forum. Volf is right that religion, and in particular Christianity, has the resources our world so badly needs to understand the meaning of our lives; Brooks is right that our age needs to recover moral formation as a discipline (I enjoyed his recent book The Road to Character; see also the helpful Gospel Coalition review of Volf’s new text).
I’m excited to share that very soon, Midwestern Seminary (where I teach systematic theology) will announce a brand-new center with a mission not altogether dissimilar from that which Volf leads. This center will address matters of faith, theology, culture, ethics, and the public square. It will operate from a robustly confessional worldview, representing intellectual Christocentricity in a world that pretends it is a vacuum, but is ever and always a fountain bursting forth with the multi-splendored glory of God.