Ellen T. Charry
Margaret W. Harmon Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary

November 1 & 2, 2005
7:30 p.m. Seminary Chapel

God and the Art of Happiness

November 1: The Art of Happiness
Christianity has lost its teaching on happiness and with that the dominant culture has lost a morally and psychologically compelling vision of the same. St Augustine created the Christian doctrine of happiness that lost its voice with the advent of modernity, leaving contemporary culture without a link between goodness and happiness.

(The introduction begins at 2:40 of the recording.)

November 2: Reconstructing the Art of Happiness
Christian reclamation of the art of happiness will chart a mediating path between an inordinately eschatological Christian treatment that has difficulty embracing happiness in this life and an inordinately political treatment of happiness that has difficulty embracing the spiritual dimensions of happiness. Happiness is the by-product of wisdom and skills for adroit self-use garnered from the habit of knowing, loving, and enjoying God.

Dr. Charry joined the Princeton Theological Seminary faculty in 1997, having been an assistant professor of theology in the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.

Her most recent books are Inquiring After God: Classic and Contemporary Readings (2000) and By the Renewing of Your Minds: Pastoral Function of Christian Doctrine (1997). Dr. Charry is also the author of many scholarly and popular articles and is editor of Theology Today and editor at large for The Christian Century.

Dr. Charry serves on the Academic Advisory Committee of the Institute for American Values and on the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church. She has received the Alan Richardson Fellowship at Durham University's Department of Theology for Spring 2006.

Dr. Charry received her MA and Ph.D. in Religion from Temple University (Philadelphia), an MSW from Yeshiva University (New York) and a BA in Sociology from Columbia University (New York).