Landon Saunders Lecturer: Miroslav Volf

Miroslav Volf will return to the CSC in 2021 to deliver the Landon Saunders Lecture on the Human Being: the Nexus of World and Faith. The title of his lecture is "Meaning and Dimensions of Flourishing." Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Center for Faith and Culture. He has earned a doctoral and post-doctoral degrees (with highest honors) from the University of Tübingen, Germany. He has written or edited more than 20 books and over 100 scholarly articles.

Director's Comments

I am very pleased with Miroslav Volf has accepted the invitation from the Landon Saunders Lecture Committee to return to the CSC next June to deliver the lecture, "Meaning and Dimensions of Flourishing."

The Committee has structured Volf's lecture to be followed by prepared replies from three scholars, with interactive audience dialogue. Volf will also be engaged in subsequent sessions creating an opportunity for the most robust interdisciplinary engagement.

Volf's work is timely and essential as we consider partnerships to create a "livable world." Volf observes that in today's world "religions are being pushed to become less religious" and more focused on individual prosperity. The more religious become "servants" of economic and political systems, he claims, the more they "betray their original character" and teachings.

Volf's lecture and the discussions that follow will examine how a flourishing life is one that is inextricably tied to humanity as a whole, advancing Volf's claim that one person "cannot flourish if others in the world are not flourishing."