Graduate Roundtable

Spring 2012 – “Human Flourishing as the End of Scholarship”

It has been argued that any discipline justifies itself by the contribution it makes towards human flourishing. Even fields seemingly remote from human impact ultimately are worthwhile when we can see a legitimate impact in terms of the human experience. But what do we mean by human flourishing? To evoke such a term implies certain things, and leaves other things in question. More than this, as many contend, to speak of human flourishing really embarks on the realm of religion, broadly speaking. So, where do explicitly religious commitments fit into a conversation on human flourishing? We think it is primarily in particular religious visions of the human that we get the best frameworks for human flourishing. This semester the Graduate Roundtable will read a collection of essays that focus on the question of human flourishing – what do we mean by it? how do we get there? and how might various disciplines help us in that process? Specifically, we will consider a vision of human flourishing rooted in the Christian tradition.

Jan. 28: Jean Bethke Elshtain – “Three Meditations on Human Flourishing”
Feb. 18: Nick Spencer – “A Christian Vision of Human Flourishing”
Mar. 18: Nicholas Wolterstorff – “God’s Power and Human Flourishing”
Apr. 12: Richard Wolin – “Reflections on the Crisis in the Humanities”

Mondays, 12:00 noon in the Christian Study Center classroom
Jan 28, Feb 18, March 18 and April 12
Led by Todd Best
For UF graduate students only

The Graduate Roundtable is an inter-disciplinary reading and discussion group that gives graduate students at the University of Florida the opportunity for theological reflection on the scholarly issues that arise in academic work.  The group’s discussions grow out of specific readings and focus on important issues that emerge in academic discourse. The group also provides the opportunity for graduate students to discuss their own scholarship with their peers.