Roots of Flourishing

We look at the basic good of play.   There are three reasons why people play games.  1) to win, 2) for the love of the game, and 3) for the love of the people we play with.  As long as we value the love of the game and the love of the people above the desire to win, we will have a good gaming experience, avoid being a "sore loser" or "prideful victor", and promote our own virtu...

This episode looks at a Biblical view of flourishing through the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-5:  "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." The understanding of the heart according to Professor Scott Redd "refers to the general cognitive and volitional capacities of the person.” ...

This last of a five-part series on identity analyzes an identity in Christ.  This identity answers the three fundamental questions:  who is my God (spiritual dimension), who is my neighbor (social) and who am I (psychologic dimension).  God is the trinitarian God proclaimed and embodied in Jesus Christ.  Our primary duties and obligations lie in the first two questions through the two greatest com...

Critical theory is a way of looking at humanity through power imbalances that may have harmed a person’s human flourishing as currently defined by economic and/or sexual expression.  Critical theory's Achilles heel is that it is unclear about the future institutions and values that the revolution is aiming towards.  Thus, there is a faith in revolution for revolution sake. Power imbalances we...

This is the 3rd of a five-part series on identity.  We analyze the identities of a Mandalorian (Star Wars series), a physician, and a member of the profession of arms.  We analyzed all three identities through our 5 questions.  All three identities were or are being challenged.  The first two (Mandalorian and physician) are challenged from within as to what are the core elements or what really def...

This is the 2nd of a five-part series on identity.  We review our current identity trends by answering our 5 questions that help us answer how good an identity is.  Our identities are currently psychologically driven.  Within the psychologic dimension, our desires drive our identity while our emotions act as gatekeepers deciding whether another person’s words will be allowable or not.  Our rationa...

This is the first of a five-part series on identity.  It is useful to examine identities throughout history and up to our modern day by asking one or more of three fundamental questions.  Who is my God (spiritual dimension), who is my neighbor (social) and/or who am I (psychologic dimension). Historically up to the Enlightenment, a person’s identity was based upon the answers to the first two ques...

This episode concludes our examination of the spiritual dimension by analyzing common errors.    Error #1: Mistaking the social for the spiritual.  We think the religious service with its liturgy and building or obedience to social norms are the spiritual dimension.  Religious service attendance and doing the good and avoiding the evil should be encouraged.  However, to be complete, it needs to wo...

Second episode of two parts on the spiritual dimension.  Humans appear designed to pursue knowledge and particularly knowledge of the sacred or transcendent.  Defining the spiritual dimension as things that are transcendently good, true, and beautiful, and God Himself is robust for four reasons:  1) it distinguishes the spiritual dimensions from the other three dimensions, 2) these four areas all...

First episode of two parts on the spiritual dimension.  Humans appear designed to pursue knowledge and particularly knowledge of the sacred or transcendent.  Defining the spiritual dimension as things that are transcendently good, true, and beautiful, and God Himself is robust for four reasons:  1) it distinguishes the spiritual dimensions from the other three dimensions, 2) these four areas all w...

This is the final lectures on the challenges of the digital revolution on our humanity where we discuss its impact on the spiritual dimension. All aspects of the spiritual dimension can be harmed by the digital revolution.  The spiritual dimension includes the Good (the virtues), the True and the Beautiful while culminating in our relationship with God who is ultimately the summation of everything...

This is the second of two lectures on the social harms by the digital revolution.   In the pre-digital world, we desired and sought out relations with those that we had common beliefs and interests; however, the degree of homogeneity of those beliefs and interests was limited by the potential number of people we could interact with.  We also had access to limited information which prevented many o...

This is the first of two lectures on the social harms by the digital revolution.  The digital world has led to two main features: we ignore the people in front of us and bully those we don’t see.  We will address the first of these two: ignoring the people in front of us and the harms it has on the basic goods of friendship and marriage. We are either distracted or addicted to our digital world be...

3rd part on the digital revolution looking at biologic harms. Key brain aspects include networks, the neurotransmitter dopamine, and mirror neurons. 4 networks. 1) executive control network (ECN): decision making and self-regulation. 2) salience network (SN): filters external and internal stimuli. 3) default mode network (DMN): activated when not engaged in a task. Includes ideas of the self and o...

3rd part on the digital revolution looking at biologic harms. Key brain aspects include networks, the neurotransmitter dopamine, and mirror neurons. 4 networks. 1) executive control network (ECN): decision making and self-regulation. 2) salience network (SN): filters external and internal stimuli. 3) default mode network (DMN): activated when not engaged in a task. Includes ideas of the self and o...

2nd of 5-part series on the digital revolution. Today we look at the psychologic harms. Expressive individualism sets the background that already drives us more into the psychologic.  This overemphasis on our thoughts, emotions, and desires leads to narcissism.  This preoccupation with self-referential thinking or thinking about “me” leads to unhappiness. Silicon Valley exploits this turn to the p...

This is the first part of a five-episode series on the challenges that the digital revolution pose for our humanity.  This episode will provide a general framework to analyze the effects of tools and specifically the digital revolution regarding our human flourishing.   The analysis begins with assessing the depth and breadth of a tool’s impact on us.  The digital revolution is widespread globally...

Join me in the last of a two-part conversation with college student Micah Allen.  This episode continues our discussion of human flourishing from both philosophical and theological perspectives.  We introduce three philosophers and theologians Soren Kierkegaard , Marcus Aurelius , and R.C. Sproul in addition to referencing previously mentioned authors Viktor Frankl and Albert Wolters .  The conver...

Join me in the first of a two-part conversation with college student Micah Allen as we discuss human flourishing in the college experience and beyond.  This wide ranging discussion covers issues within college from Micah's perspective as a resident assistance to general  thinking of human flourishing from both theological and philosophical perspectives.   E-mail for comments and questions at:...

The last of a four-episode series on redeeming work that discusses how ideological intrusion into our work can degrade, dilute, and even distort the good of our work.  Finally, we discuss the one area of positive enhancement (promoting engagement or flow) that the institution contributes to our work.    Ideology can be defined as a set of political beliefs or a set of ideas that characterize a par...

The third of a four-episode series on redeeming work that introduces three areas of harm (money, bureaucracy, and ideology) and one area of positive enhancement (promoting engagement or flow) that the institution contributes to our work. The three harms degrade , dilute , and/or distort our work.     The disordered love or prioritization of money can either be from an individual or institutional p...

The second of a four-episode series on redeeming work discusses the importance of loving people we work with and for while highlighting the fundamental key of the spiritual dimension.    The social aspect of our jobs is arguably the most important as it leads directly to more of the fruits of flourishing (three--meaning, positive relationships, and positive emotions) than loving our jobs for their...

This is the first of a four-episode series on redeeming work.  The basic thesis is that we can redeem work only if we love the work we do for its own sake AND love those associated with our work—those we work with and work for.  The first two episodes will focus on the individual while the last two will address the contributions that the institution plays.   Overall human flourishing both in and o...

This episode we review the contributions of positive psychology to human flourishing by summarizing and analyzing Dr. Martin Seligman’s book “Flourish.”  Positive psychology’s current contributions to understanding flourishing can be quickly summarized with the acronym PERMA (P: Positive emotions; E: Engagement or flow; R: Relationships—positive ones; M: Meaning outside oneself; A: Accomplishment...

We discuss the last criteria of how we can rightly order our four dimensions and promote the basic goods through the concept of mutual subordination.  Mutual subordination is akin to self-transcendence but takes this notion out of the psychologic and rightly applies it to all dimensions and all the basic goods.  No dimension or basic good can bring about its own end but is entirely dependent upon...