The Grace Farms Lecture | Miroslav Volf

Founding Director of Yale Center for Faith & Culture and one of the most significant theologians of our time, 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.

About 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.

Schedule:

3 – 3:45 pm

Miroslav Volf Delivers Grace Farms Lecture

3:45 – 4 pm
Tea & Coffee Break

4 – 5 pm
Responsive Music Performance by Canadian Cellist, Arlen Hlusko, Grace Farms Artist-in-Residence

Grace Farms Lectures

Grace Farms Lectures recognize visionary leaders who have profoundly elevated human flourishing throughout their lives and distinguished careers. For the past decade, Grace Farms has welcomed international thought leaders and artistic luminaries including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, as well as Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Denis Mukwege. By bringing these transformative thinkers and creators together, Grace Farms continues to inspire meaningful dialogue and bold action toward a more just and peaceful world.

“This program is designed to be an epic Grace Farms experience, with music curated for each lecture by artist-in-residence, Arlen Hlusko, and a reception. An optional workshop connecting with each topic will also provide a way to engage with the lecture material in a tactile way.”
– Chelsea Thatcher, Grace Farms Creative Director