Grace Farms Lectures | Dr. Miroslav Volf

Founding Director of Yale Center for Faith & Culture and one of the most significant theologians of our time, Dr. Miroslav Volf will create the opportunity to pause and consider the question: what is a life worth living? He will explore the global human need for grace, forgiveness and true generosity, and how the systems we depend on daily would falter without it. For Volf, this is a step toward a world in which every person can wrestle with life’s most important questions and take hold of a life worthy of our humanity. Volf is the author of more than 20 books, including Exclusion & Embrace — which was named one of the best 100 religious books of the twentieth century.

Following the lecture, enjoy a Chamber Music Performance featuring Adrian Anantawan & Lun Li, violins; Celia Hatton, viola; and Arlen Hlusko, cello.

Schedule:

3 – 3:45 pm
Dr. Miroslav Volf delivers Grace Farms Lecture

3:45 – 4 pm
Tea & Coffee Break

4 – 5 pm
Chamber Music Performance

Begin your Grace Farms Lecture experience with a Life Worth Living Workshop, led by Drew Collins, Associate Research Scholar from the Yale Center for Faith & Culture, from 1 – 2:30 pm on Saturday, February 7th. Register separately.

About Dr. Miroslav Volf

Professor Volf is the founding Director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. His books include Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (1996; revised edition, 2019), winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion and named one of Christianity Today’s 100 most important religious books of the 20th Century; Flourishing: Why We Need Religion in a Globalized World (2016); The Home of God: A Brief Story of Everything (2022), co-authored with Ryan McAnnally-Linz; and, most recently, co-authored with Matthew Croasmun and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most (2023).

A member of the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. and the Evangelical Church in Croatia, Professor Volf has been involved in international ecumenical dialogues (for instance, with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity) and interfaith dialogues (including the Muslim and Christian “A Common Word” initiative), as well as a participant in the Global Agenda Council on Values of the World Economic Forum. A native of Croatia, he regularly teaches and lectures in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, and across North America. Amongst his many invited lectureships, he has given the Dudleian Lecture at Harvard University; the Chavasse Lectures at Oxford University; the Waldenstroem Lectures at Stockholm School of Theology; the Gray Lectures at Duke University; the Stob Lectures at Calvin University; and the Cadbury Lectures at the University of Birmingham. In May 2025, he will deliver the Gifford Lectures in Aberdeen, UK.

Grace Farms Lectures

Grace Farms Lectures bring together visionary leaders who have shaped our world, inviting them to share the wisdom they have learned through their distinguished careers. Each lecture is accompanied by a specially curated 60-minute concert performed by some of today’s most celebrated musicians. The pieces performed by these artists respond directly to the life’s work of each lecturer and the impact they continue to make.

This program is designed as an epic Grace Farms experience, with 60 minutes of music curated for each lecture by Artist-in-Residence Arlen Hlusko to enhance the message of the Lectures. An optional workshop connecting with each topic also provides a way to engage with the lecture material in a tactile way.