"Taste and See that the Lord is Good":
Liturgical Participation and the Dynamics of Happiness

Ellen T. Charry, Princeton Theological Seminary

July 10-28, 2006

Sponsored by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
Funds provided by the Lilly Endowment, Inc.

Seminar Description
This seminar will work on reconstructing a theologically and psychologically astute Christian doctrine of happiness. The classic teaching, developed by Augustine and Aquinas, was trounced by modern visions of happiness that either focused solely on the manipulation of material circumstances and ignored or rejected the psycho-spiritual dimensions of happiness, or identified a vision of morality that eschewed happiness.

Readings will examine the texts that constructed the original Christian vision (particularly in Augustine) and the process of its deconstruction. The challenge will be in reconstruction. Here we will rely upon recent philosophical and psychological research and the Christian liturgical tradition that forms Christians in a way of life rounded in the reintegration of truth and goodness.

A one-day colloquium on the sacraments will include guests Paul Gavrilyuk, Lizette Larson-Miller, Karen Westerfield Tucker, and John Witvliet representing the Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican, Methodist, and Reformed perspectives respectively.

Pastors, theologians, psychologists, and philosophers interested in the question of human flourishing from a Christian theological perspective are encouraged to apply.

About the Director
Ellen T. Charry is the Margaret W. Harmon associate professor of systematic theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and immediate past Editor of the journal Theology Today. Her most recent books are Inquiring after God: Classic and Contemporary Readings (Blackwell), and By the Renewing of Your Minds: The Pastoral Function of Christian Doctrine (Oxford). She serves on the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church (USA), and on the advisory boards of The Christian Century, the Institute for American Values, Brazos Press, and the Scottish Journal of Theology.

Seminars 2006 Index

For further information contact:
Seminars in Christian Scholarship
Calvin College
1855 Knollcrest Circle SE
Grand Rapids MI 49546-4402
616.526.8558
fax 616.526.6682
seminars@calvin.edu