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The Seminary invited Dr. Miroslav Volf to give the 2008 Weber Memorial Lectures on March 7, in conjunction with the alumni reunion. Dr. Volf, the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, explored the concept of “God and Human Flourishing.” Dr. Stephen Simmons, director of Continuing Education, organized the event and offered a summary of Volf's talk:
“Life is short; get a divorce.” That startling little sentence, which recently appeared on a biilboard in Chicago (advertising a group of divorce lawyers – surprise!) provided the imaginative backdrop for Miroslav Volf’s Weber Memorial Lectures at the Seminary, “God and Human Flourishing.”. Dr. Volf noted that contemporary Western societies tend to define human fulfillment in ways that seem mystifying, if not scandalous, to others in our world. Often aiming for short-term gratification rather than long-term accomplishment, we live in an age of “the managed pursuit of pleasure” rather than of “the sustained endeavor to lead a good life” (if we see a person bearing a great burden on behalf of someone else, “flourishing” is hardly the word we would ordinarily use to describe the situation). The irony, of course, is that hedonism "creates in its trail a kind of melancholy" since the search for pleasure as a goal in itself gives rise to an insatiable need for “more, better, faster.”
The answer, Volf believes, is simple in theory but difficult in practice. We need to abandon what he terms an instrumental view of God that sees faith mainly as a means of promoting human happiness, and to consider much more seriously than we do what God requires of us. Referring to his recent experiences in dialogue with the international Muslim community, he showed the audience a set of prayer beads that had been given to him by the prince of Jordan, a Sufi mystic who prays for two hours daily before assuming his governmental responsibilities. Whatever theological differences we may have with people like his friend the prince, Professor Volf suggested, we might well take some cues from such faithful and disciplined devotional practice, as we seek the authentic human flourishing that comes through loving God first with all our heart, soul, and mind.
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