Abstract
In this article, we aim to explain how Miroslav Volf’s theology of flourishing provides a new vision for psychologists. As the Henry B. Wright Professor and Founder and Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, Volf is recognized as one of the most influential living theologians. His recent work offers a theology of human flourishing based in an eschatological vision of God’s homecoming, the unification of the Creator with His created. For Volf, the end provides a telos, a purpose, and direction, for current human life. He asserts that although proleptic, flourishing occurs simultaneously within the two eschatological “already” and “not yet” realities through the inbreaking of the Holy Spirit in the context of love. The true life is a life led well, going well, and feeling as God intends and is characterized by love, peace, and joy. In this article, we summarize Volf’s theology of the homecoming of God and human flourishing and bridge the disciplines of theology and psychology, by discussing how the psychology of thriving toward the telos of the Reciprocating Self provides a heuristic for psychologists. The heuristic offers psychologists a guide for research and clinical work that is aligned with Volf’s eschatological vision.
Keywords
At the time of this publication, the world as we know it seems to be crossing a liminal threshold as we live or at times grope our way through the complexities of ongoing pandemic life. The predictability and plausibility of foundational elements of existence have been challenged. For example, our views about our physical health, norms for social gathering, food acquisition, education, understanding of justice, the stability of our democracy, and the longevity of our planet have all been shaken. A deep reordering of human life seems to be underway. Paralleling this disruption are radical shifts in both theology and psychology that represent a movement from an emphasis on recovering from sin or pathology toward models of flourishing and thriving. Consequently, for this special issue, we highlight the relevance of Miroslav Volf’s theology of flourishing for psychologists (Croasmun & Volf, 2022; Volf & Croasmun, 2019; Volf & McAnnally-Linz, 2022). Given the ontological and epistemological differences generally existing between theology and psychology, we offer a theory of thriving toward the Reciprocating Self (Balswick et al., 2016; King, 2016, 2020; King & Mangan, 2022) as a heuristic to bridge Volf’s theological perspectives to practical implications for psychological science and application. The developmental, systemic, and teleological perspectives of a psychology of thriving with a telos of the Reciprocating Self provide the necessary conceptual coherence with Volf’s theology to provide a helpful lens that allows psychological theory, research, and practice to align with Volf’s vision of flourishing which enables human transformation.
In this most recent work, M. Volf (personal communication, October, 2016; Volf & McAnnally-Linz, 2022) synthesizes his previous scholarship with an aim of reorienting theology around flourishing. In doing so, Volf offers a challenging and invigorating presentation of the gospel narrative that emphasizes an element of the gospel often overlooked—that is the ending—the consummation and fulfillment of creation. Contrary to conventional notions of heaven, instead of an eschatological escapism that might serve as an opium against suffering for a desperate people (Marx, 1978), Volf grounds his work in a vision of flourishing in the present. While notions of flourishing are increasingly evident within psychology, Volf’s conceptualization of the flourishing of all of creation in Christ through the Spirit has particular synergy with the psychology of thriving. In what follows, we overview Volf’s understanding of the fulfillment of creation or his “eschatological spoiler alert” by providing background on his own origin story as a journey of seeking flourishing, and we discuss his theology of homecoming and human flourishing. To link Volf’s theology to psychology, we overview thriving and the Reciprocating Self (Balswick et al., 2016; King, 2016, 2020; King & Mangan, 2022) and discuss the synergies between the two. We conclude by summarizing key tenets of thriving to offer a heuristic to guide psychological science and application that is aligned with a theology of a flourishing world. Such a heuristic has the potential to widen the current focus of the dominant medical health model from pathology toward human thriving in addition to healing individual mental illness. In an era characterized by radical changes, we hope such a heuristic would direct psychologists to approach their work as scholars and clinicians in a way that is aligned with the entire gospel, and emphasize not only what Jesus saved us from (e.g., sin, death), but also what Jesus saved us for (e.g., thriving, purpose). We are grateful for Volf’s compelling vision that exhorts us toward these ends.
Biographic Sketch
Miroslav Volf is as distinguished a scholar as one might hope to find. He is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and founder and Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. A scholar and an author, he has written or edited more than 20 books with his work being featured in the Washington Post, Christianity Today, and other prestigious outlets (Volf, n.d.). With a CV that is at home among the academic elite, it is most intriguing to note the humble background of this accomplished man.
Born in 1956, Volf spent his formative years in eastern Europe during the height of the communist regime. In his own words, he describes a powerful state that robbed us of civic freedoms, forced us into mergers of “unity and brotherhood” in the name of goals we didn’t share, disregarded our dreams, . . . despoiled the environment, and trampled on freedom of religion and the right to live our lives as we saw fit. (Volf, 2015, p. 5)
A Croat, born in former Yugoslavia, his family moved to Serbia where his father ministered to a small Pentecostal community. As a Croat living in Serbia, he was a foreigner in a country unwelcoming to aliens. In addition, he was the son of a minister in a state openly hostile toward religion and belonged to a Pentecostal community considered a cult to the more established Christian Catholic and Orthodox denominations of the area (Croasmun & McAnnally-Linz, 2017). He reports growing up resenting the expectations of sainthood placed upon him by his church community while experiencing blatant discrimination at school as the despised son of the public enemy (Volf, 1998). At a young age Volf was not a stranger to oppression and marginalization.
In one of his later books, Volf describes how he found answers to the suffering he had witnessed and experienced in his study of the Bible (Volf & Croasmun, 2019). As a member of a small group of teenage theological enthusiasts Volf spent days and nights reading the Bible and other noted theologians and philosophers, such as C.S. Lewis, Plato, and Karl Barth. He was motivated by “the power of Jesus Christ, the Word of God and the Lamb of God, which stood in irreconcilable contrast to the power of soldiers, ideologues, bureaucrats, and secret service agents” (Volf & Croasmun, 2019, p. 9).
The answer that his searching and learning brought him was that theology provided hope and purpose as responses to oppression and marginalization. Theology captured the coming of God’s new and different world; a vision of a new social order defined by God’s rule “whose creation and survival wouldn’t demand thousands on thousands of dead” (Volf, 2019, p. 9), like the world in which Volf was born. Theology was about the hopeful truth and beauty of human existence within the vision of a future world of justice, peace, and joy (Volf & Croasmun, 2019).
This hopeful vision propelled Volf down a road that would lead him from a small house in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia (Volf, 1998) to his current role at Yale Divinity School. A journey marked by the constant companion of the God of love, revealed in Jesus Christ, who was and is leading his creation toward consummation. Volf’s faith in a hopeful future has led to a body of work focused on providing a vision of the true life, the good life, lived in the presence of God.
Theological Themes
Although one can trace the theme of flourishing throughout Volf’s vast body of work, we examine his most recent pieces that might be described as the summation of all that has come before (Croasmun & McAnnally-Linz, 2017). His recent work centers on the consummation of creation and focuses on his theology of flourishing and homecoming.
Volf’s theological perspective is informed by the deep conviction that the Trinitarian nature of God is a perichoretic unity; within the divine person as a subject the other persons also indwell (see Volf, 1998). To simplify, this means that God is love. “God is love of the other and only via the other is it possible to talk about self-love in God. This is who God is” (Croasmun & McAnnally-Linz, 2017, p. 2). Therefore, all that God is and does finds its root in relational love. God creates, redeems, and indwells out of and for love (Croasmun & McAnnally-Linz, 2017; Volf, 1998). For Volf, this relational love, based in the perichoretic Trinitarian nature of God, translates to an anthropology that emphasizes the significance of both particularity and reciprocal relationality of humanity. We were created as particular individuals meant to live in divine unity with God, others, and creation in Christ through the Spirit (see Volf, 1998; Volf & Croasmun, 2019). The Christian eschatological vision is the completion of God’s drawing all of creation toward this union (Volf, 2021). This consummation can be likened to a homecoming of the uniquely created, unified in an “eschatological love that dances” (Volf & Croasmun, 2019, p. 55) with its creator. Flourishing begins when we let ourselves be indwelled by God (Volf & Welker, 2006) which begins orienting our lives toward this homecoming.
A vision of homecoming
Volf’s theology of the homecoming of God centers on the consummation that unites the Creator with His creation (Volf & Croasmun, 2019). Based on the Book of Revelation, this restored world, the New Jerusalem, is characterized by the material and social worlds we inhabit becoming fully home to both God and humanity (Volf, 2021; Volf & McAnnally-Linz, 2022). This home is analogous to the holy of holies, the place in which the presence of God rests. God dwells within His creation as His creation dwells within Him. Therefore, in this New Jerusalem, this home of God and creation, the rule of God occurs from within the people of God, with God’s laws fully embedded and embodied in new ways of being (Volf, 2021; Volf & McAnnally-Linz, 2022). Unlike the current state of the world where nations are subdued by military might, deception, or seduction, this rule is one in which through perfect unity with God, humanity and nature live in perfect harmony. At the heart of this vision, Volf sees a home in which neither humans nor nature is exploited but all has been restored to rightful relationships that allow for unity amid particularity. Home is the “social and material site of wholeness and flourishing” (Volf, 2021).
Volf explicitly affirms that the current world we inhabit is malformed by brokenness that is a consequence of sin. However, this future home, the site of God’s indwelling, modeled in the person and life of Jesus Christ, is already in the process of being birthed within this present mundane realm (Volf & Croasmun, 2019). The challenge of Christian life is living in the times between the fulfillment of creation (the eschatological “not yet”) and the reality of the broken world in which we live (the proleptic “already”). However, because of the inbreaking of God, initiated in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ and continued through the workings of the Holy Spirit in us, it is our ultimate purpose to grow in and toward this intended fulfillment where all reaches unity in particularity in Christ (Gal. 3:28). Thus, although we live in the penultimate creation that is groaning toward completion (Rom. 8:22), through the Spirit, we properly orient our lives toward this coming reality. By imaginatively living into the life that will be in the New Jerusalem and improvising with the Spirit we participate in the qualities of the life that is to come (Volf & Croasmun, 2019; Volf & Welker, 2006). In doing so, we too begin to move toward consummation. In Volf’s (2021) words: Even if we cannot create the New Jerusalem, we can start living in the light of its vision. If we do, the promise of the biblical traditions is that we come to know and love the world as our home, both the home that it already is and the home that it will become.
This vision of home is the telos for humanity and all of creation and informs the manner in which humanity can begin to define and pursue lives that are purposeful and flourishing.
What is human flourishing?
Within the broader narrative of the New Jerusalem breaking into the mundane reality of daily living, the question remains: What is the Christian vision of flourishing in the tension of the “already” and “not yet” fully realized homecoming? For Volf, the answer lies precisely within this tension. “Flourishing requires the transformative presence of the true life in the midst of the false” (Volf & Croasmun, 2019, pp. 97–98). Thus, the true life, involves the indwelling of God in us, which Volf explains springs forth out of the true world, the New Jerusalem, breaking into the false and mundane world that is our current reality. Therefore, at the center of the true life lie unified, loving, reciprocating relationships within which God dwells in the fully realized eschaton. This quality of relationality may be realized through the Spirit in our current lives. Consequently, human flourishing is lived into but cannot be fully experienced on this side of eschaton. For Volf, this true life in the midst of the false is manifested in three domains: A life that is led well, going well, and a life feeling as it should (Volf & Croasmun, 2019).
A life led well
For Volf, a life that is led well is one that abides in faithful, covenantal, obedience to love (Volf & Croasmun, 2019). This rings back to Volf’s central understanding of the Trinitarian relationality of God (Volf, 1998). God is love because at the core of God’s being lies perfect reciprocity, three in one. That which lies at the heart of the creator is inherent in the hearts of the created (Volf & Croasmun, 2019). Humanity was created for love; a love made most visible in the person of Jesus Christ. Thus, although we live in the penultimate creation that is groaning toward completion (Rom. 8:22), through the Spirit, we properly orient our lives toward this coming reality. God’s inbreaking began through the person of Christ, the blueprint who offers the pattern of life toward which we transform. In the Spirit, we continue to live in a partly realized eschatology while living into true lives of loving reciprocating relationships. This is humanity’s telos.
However, just as for Jesus, choosing to live life well by pursuing love inevitably leads to suffering on this side of the eschaton (Volf & Croasmun, 2019). God’s reality chafes against the cruel abusive nature of this world and the sinful nature within the self.
While the facts of love—its goodness and centrality—reveals the continuity of the eschatological transition, the shape of love reveals the discontinuity. Love in the consummate kingdom reigns; love betwixt and between often suffers. This is why the message of the cross is foolishness to this world. (1 Cor. 1:18) (Volf & Croasmun, 2019, p. 107)
Human telos comes to completion within the New Jerusalem, the true world that is to come. Therefore, in choosing to pursue the type of love modeled by Jesus Christ we begin to partake in our true life through the Holy Spirit in this world. This transformation of love ripples outward affecting our relationships by inviting God’s rule of love into the self and surrounding relationships. Pursuing reciprocating loving relationships through the Spirit is the highest order of a life that is led well.
A life going well
The peace of restored relationships between God, humanity, and creation is the eschatological mark of a life going well (Volf & Croasmun, 2019). Ultimate peace with God moves outwards restoring and renewing relationships between people groups, individuals, and nature. In our proleptic, not fully realized, relationships we are invited to experience a foretaste of God’s unifying peace. As the Spirit continually transforms us in love the New Jerusalem breaks in coming to bear on immediate relationships with others, creation, and material goods. Visible signs of God’s peace coming to earth are “freedom for the captives (1 Cor. 7:22; Philem. 16), honor extended to the margins (1 Cor. 12:23–24), reconciliation between people groups and between individuals” (Volf & Croasmun, 2019, p. 108) and unity within the body of Christ.
The fulfillment of this peace is a goal that orients the Christian life. However, for the sake of love, we often must forgo peace within the reality that is now, instead choosing to abide in a forward reaching peace in the knowledge of what is to come: That the proleptic flourishing life is, at many times, manifestly not a life of peace demonstrates quite clearly the primacy of love in the Christian life. Peace is not always promised us in the present . . ., but love is nevertheless commanded: “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Rom. 12:18). The true life is not always a life at peace, but is always a life lived for the sake of peace. (Volf & Croasmun, 2019, p. 109)
A flourishing life, a life going well, is in its ultimacy a life enveloped by peace. To this we strive and labor, through and for the sake of love, while realizing that our persistence in love as active resistance to our disordered world may be disruptive and lead to suffering. Thus, we strive to participate in God’s full peace as we simultaneously live between the two realities.
A life feeling as it should
As the human capacity to love grows and relationships within the world become marked by peace, the accompanying affective dimension is joy (Volf & Crisp, 2015; Volf & Croasmun, 2019). A glimpse into the future at the vision of the New Jerusalem suggests a world of perfect love and peace. In this place, the love that is God fully indwells humanity and peace characterizes relationships. Joy will be the only possible response to the goodness that will be evident all around. The presence of God woven into the fabric of the life-that-will-be evokes joy (Volf & Croasmun, 2019). Within our current and broken existence, “unceasing joy is tied to unceasing cultivation of the awareness of— and appropriate response to—the presence of God: continuous prayer and thanksgiving” (Volf, 2019, p. 110). Witnessing and valuing the goodness of God breaking into our proleptic reality is reason for joy.
However, similar to love and peace, so too is joy limited in its expression on this side of eschaton. Our current life is not always joyful. Once again, the centrality of God’s law of love rings true. Love is anchored in truth and therefore sees the world as it actually is: a place of love, peace, and joy and also a place of extreme suffering, oppression, and death (Volf & Croasmun, 2019). For this reason, the proleptic life must be marked by joy as well as sorrow and anger. As we honestly live in the reality of the “not yet” we are called to rejoice over manifestations of peace, such as unity, justice, mercy, and reconciliation while being aware that “our joy over a small part of the world at peace will always contain within it a mourning over the fact that this island of peace is not yet integrated into a whole world at peace” (Volf, 2019, p. 111).
Summary
For Volf, human telos finds its conclusion in the love, peace, and joy that is the unification, the homecoming, of the creator with His creation. The created fulfill their telos by living in unified and loving reciprocating relationships with God and others while maintaining their particularity and distinction. This consummation is where the true life is found and all of creation flourishes. Here, lives are being led well, are going well, and are feeling the way they should. For the church, the proleptic period is submerged in the tensions of reaching for what is to come amid the suffering that is now. Volf’s theology of flourishing serves to draw us out of the status quo of what is and reminds us of what could be, what should be, no, what will be! His vision of God’s indwelling within us and his focus on relationships as the sites in which this indwelling, God’s New Jerusalem, can reach out to touch another, gives an eschatological purpose to every day interactions.
A Heuristic of Thriving
Volf’s theological vision reorients the entire gospel toward the homecoming of God and an understanding of human flourishing that corresponds to the fulfillment of all of creation. His view of flourishing is defined by life in the Spirit that is characterized by love, peace, and joy. As such, Volf’s theological vision has many implications for psychologists. That said, his emphasis on the fulfillment of all of creation and his metaphysical approach poses several challenges for psychologists who generally focus on individuals without consideration of broader society, let alone creation (see King & Mangan, 2022). In addition, in general, secular psychology lacks the epistemological tools to consider life lived between the eschatological “already” and “not yet” realities and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit (King & Whitney, 2015). In hopes of aligning the endeavors of psychology more closely with Volf’s vision of flourishing, we offer thriving toward the telos of the Reciprocating Self (Balswick et al., 2016; King, 2016, 2020; King & Mangan, 2022) as a heuristic to apply Volf’s eschatological vision to the theories, methods, and practices that we engage as psychologists.
Thriving, telos, and the Reciprocating Self
Thriving is a theoretical orientation and growing field of empirical work that has emerged within developmental psychology in the last two decades (Bundick et al., 2010; King, 2020; King & Mangan, 2022; Lerner et al., 2000). Thriving is informed by relational developmental systems metatheories and considers human development in the context of the interactions between a person and the many systems in which one lives (Lerner et al., 2000; Overton, 2010). Specifically, thriving occurs when an organism or system develops in ways that not only better the individual, but also the surrounding environment. Consequently, thriving is a dynamic process of development that perpetuates a thriving trajectory for individuals and society (King, 2020; King & Mangan, 2022; Schnitker et al., 2019). In contrast to the relational developmental systems approach to thriving, the term flourishing in the field of psychology generally emphasizes individual wellbeing, happiness, and life satisfaction. Even though flourishing often considers both hedonic (i.e., pertaining to what is gratifying) and eudemonic (i.e., pertaining to what is meaningful) approaches, the emphasis is generally focused on the individual experience (see King et al., 2018).
Alternatively, thriving emphasizes an approach to human development that draws on organismic and epigenetic theory and holism (King & Mangan, 2022; Lerner et al., 2000; Overton, 2010). As an organismic approach, thriving is predicated on the idea of plasticity and growth through ongoing cycles of growing in complexity, integration, and differentiation that results in structural changes. Holism upholds the deep connections between all entities and points to the reality that growth characteristic of thriving, must benefit the greater whole. Although historically, psychology considered all potential and probable growth (i.e., probable epigenesis), more recently with the recognition of profound systemic injustice and increasing scarcity of resources, notions of teleologically informed development proactively guide theory, research, and application toward individual healing and growth that ideally contributes to a thriving whole—for communities, societies, and the planet.
Thus, thriving emphasizes growth, but not unmitigated growth—as not all growth is good growth. For example, maturing in one’s capacities to deceive is not necessarily thriving. Thus, thriving based in a teleological framework recognizes constraints to growth. Some constraints are unintentional and occur through the realities of broken individuals, relationships, and/or systems. However, thriving also acknowledges the importance of intentional constraint, when people make choices and take opportunities for purposeful growth that allow them to develop in authenticity with and for others. In other words, thriving involves growth that benefits others, requiring people to grow individually, relationally, and aspirationally (King & Mangan, 2022).
One way of conceptualizing the telos or goal of thriving is to develop more fully into a Reciprocating Self (Balswick et al., 2016; King, 2016, 2020; King & Mangan, 2022), which captures the importance of individual growth and differentiation that takes place in mutual and moral relationships with others and God. The Reciprocating Self provides an adaptive framework and posits that humans are to become more fully differentiated persons in intimate and accountable relationships with God and others. From the perspective of the Reciprocating Self, thriving is the process of adaptive growth into such interdependent persons whose transformation is marked by ongoing individual, relational, and aspirational growth. Human telos or purpose most fully occurs at the intersection of these three areas of growth (see Figure 1). 1 In fact, research demonstrates that pursuing purpose, as an enduring life goal that is meaningful to the self and makes a contribution beyond the self is an effective way to pursue thriving (Damon, 2009). This dynamic understanding of the Reciprocating Self conceptualizes telos without being deterministic and offers a constructive, flexible framework allowing psychological scientists and practitioners to consider various approaches to research and interventions in regard to what ends they are promoting. Therefore, this teleological approach is interculturally sensitive and can be applied in a number of social locations.
Thriving toward the telos of the Reciprocating Self.
The relationship between thriving (King, 2016, 2020; King & Mangan, 2022) and Volf’s (Croasmun & Volf, 2022; Volf & Croasmun, 2017; Volf & McAnnally-Linz, 2022) theory of the flourishing of all creation have much in common. (a) Both offer a purpose or telos for human life that accounts for individual, communal, and environmental flourishing. (b) The shared teleological perspective between Volf’s views of flourishing and King’s (2016, 2020; King & Mangan, 2022) perspective of thriving emphasizes the importance of directionality. Flourishing and thriving occur as a process of transformation toward telos—whether unity with all creation in Christ for Volf or as reciprocating selves in unity with all of creation in Christ. (c) In both approaches, people flourish and thrive through loving relationships and their active and authentic engagement in transcendent purposes. Volf commends humans to loving relationships that allow for the further inbreaking and transformative powers of the Holy Spirit as they are active participants in the redemption and flourishing of creation as a means to prepare God’s home. The Reciprocating Self (Balswick et al., 2016; King, 2016; King & Mangan, 2022) emphasizes the transformative primacy of relationships, allowing humans to live purposefully, with purpose found at the intersection of growth as unique persons, in relationship and contributing to others, and becoming more like Christ with evolving moral and spiritual development. (d) Both approaches allow for the consideration of living in the two eschatological realities of the material world and the world which is to come. Although metaphysics do not challenge theology, the field of psychology is not equipped to directly operationalize a supernatural reality. That said, relational developmental systems (Lerner et al., 2000; Overton, 2010) approaches allow for the consideration of people’s perceptions of their experience of transcendence. Thus, thriving can be conceptualized to occur in people’s perceptions of the “already” and “not yet” realities of the Christian life. Similarly, Volf’s perspective of flourishing and King’s views of thriving provide for the consideration of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. (e) Both approaches affirm the centrality of love, peace, and joy.
The Reciprocating Self and love, peace, and joy
Although the telos of the Reciprocating Self (Balswick et al., 2016; King, 2016; King & Mangan, 2022) does not give a precise or final endpoint for human development nor a precise means or formula by which to get there, research related to thriving affirms that pursuing purpose at the intersection of personal, relational, and aspirational development is paramount (see Damon, 2009; King & Mangan, 2022; Schnitker et al., 2019). In the following section, we discuss how Volf’s flourishing trifecta of love, peace, and joy result from pursuing purpose and simultaneously further human thriving that promotes flourishing societies. As a telos, the Reciprocating Self is a dynamic growth process of perpetual thriving embedded in relationality which is fueled by love, peace, and joy.
Love
For Volf, human telos is defined by the perichoretic relationality and loving reciprocity of the Trinitarian God. As the created, our purpose is to image God by living in unity with God through which unity with others and creation can be achieved. On this side of the eschaton, relational unity is not only the goal, but its pursuit is also the means through which eschatological transformation occurs. For Volf, life led well occurs in loving relationships, in which the inbreaking of the true life through the Holy Spirit emerges.
Similarly, relationality is both the means and the ends of thriving. Thriving is evident as people grow more fully into reciprocating selves, and development occurs in the context of loving reciprocal relationships with self, others, and God (Balswick et al., 2016; King, 2016, 2020; King & Mangan, 2022). Psychological science 2 has a substantive history demonstrating the importance of growing in self-knowledge, self-care, and self-expression. We emphasize that love of self emphasizes authenticity and self-compassion necessary for differentiation and further genuine interdependence with others. Furthermore, psychological science underscores the primacy of relationships. This is evident in sub disciplines, such as attachment theory, neuroscience, positive emotions, identity, purpose, and resilience. Furthermore, relational approaches to the psychology of religion and spirituality explain how people are able to experience secure attachment and love through their relationship with God. In short, healing, growth, formation, and thriving occur through caring relationships with others or God.
Peace
The emphasis on growing in authenticity, relationality, and value-aligned behaviors within thriving as a Reciprocating Self (Balswick et al., 2016; King, 2016; King & Mangan, 2022) provides psychological insight into how we understand and promote life going well and experiencing the kind of peace that Volf explains takes place in relationships aligned with God’s love. Thriving gives insight into why in our proleptic, not fully realized, relationships we experience a foretaste of God’s unifying and perfect peace. As described above, psychological science explains how we experience safety and security when in caring and loving relationships. Research demonstrates that our minds are not only calmed, but the experience of caring and attuned relationships actually helps us regulate and feel peaceful. The framework of the Reciprocating Self affirms the importance of loving God and others, but does so by emphasizing the importance of loving others with integrity to oneself. We experience concordance and satisfaction when our pursuits are out of our own volition and are aligned with our personal competencies and interests. In addition, the Reciprocating Self not only points to the importance of living out one’s sense of uniqueness in relationship with others but also affirms the importance of one’s values and beliefs. Coherency across personal goals, roles, and values brings peace. As Christians, when we model our lives after the pattern set forth by Christ, we also for further inbreaking of God’s Kingdom.
Joy
Volf identifies that joy is the way life should feel and occurs through loving relationships with others and God. For Volf, it is the loving presence of God woven into the fabric of the relationships of our lives, whether with others humans, or experiences with our surroundings, that connect us with the true life that evokes joy. Thriving toward the telos of the Reciprocating Self (Balswick et al., 2016; King, 2016; King & Mangan, 2022) elaborates on a psychology of joy. Joy involves knowing, feeling, and doing what matters most (King, 2020; King & Defoy, 2020). Based on the notion of telos, our ultimate aim and purpose, the framework of the Reciprocating Self suggests that ultimate significance is aligned with our deepest desires, found in authenticity, communion with others, and while being conformed to Christ. From this standpoint, true, enduring joy is most fully experienced at this intersection. In other words, we find most fulfillment and delight when we pursue a purpose that engages our deepest passions, with and for the benefit of others, and while aligned with our deepest ethical convictions and further us in our relationship with God.
Thriving occurs when people live increasingly strength-based, connected, and spiritually engaged lives marked by coherence and purpose. The developmental, systemic, and teleological approach of thriving and the Reciprocating Self (Balswick et al., 2016; King, 2016, 2020; King & Mangan, 2022) corresponds to Volf’s theological understanding of flourishing. Following we summarize thriving to provide a heuristic that may serve to focus psychological efforts on theory, methods, and practices that promote human thriving conducive to the eventual flourishing of all of creation. Psychological approaches emphasize:
Psychological change that accounts for contributing to individual, communal, and/or environmental flourishing for all persons.
Accounts for various macro-systemic beliefs and experiences with perceived transcendence, allowing for the consideration of living in the two eschatological realities and the activities of the Holy Spirit.
How diverse persons thrive in the context of diverse systems over time.
The importance of being adaptive to sustain thriving.
Individual development and differentiation.
The importance of relationships including intimacy, accountability, and the capacities required to relate to different types of persons.
Moral and spiritual development.
Pursuing beyond-the-self purpose that includes authenticity and in communion with others.
An understanding of the meaning-making, narrative-identity, and psychological capacities that promote virtues like love, peace, and joy.
Implications for Research and Practice
Volf’s theological vision of consummation has vast implications for psychology. Perhaps the most paramount questions psychologists might ask is how do we as psychologists enable others to live into this vision of the flourishing life? How does Volf’s theology guide a psychological science of human flourishing and what are the implications for clinical work? In the context of this article, we reviewed a psychology of thriving that emphasizes the importance of telos, continuing to develop more fully as reciprocating selves, and the importance of love, peace, and joy. We conclude by encouraging psychologists to view their work as part of preparing God’s home and as active participation with God’s Spirit in the restoration and flourishing of God’s creation toward the New Jerusalem.
In the current tenuous era, as we forge new rhythms and practices for living in our radically and ever-changing world, we challenge psychologists to deeply consider their work as scholars and/or practitioners from the perspective of Volf’s theology of flourishing or a psychology of thriving. The pervasive medical model or mental health model that undergirds much of psychology is based on a deficit orientation and promotes a focus on pathology. No doubt, healing mental health issues and promoting resilience is imperative. However, we hope that Volf’s vision of flourishing will inspire psychologists to not only see themselves as agents of healing and reconciliation, but as midwives of maturation for thriving and flourishing. Furthermore, we hope that a psychology of thriving informs future science and practice.
Such a shift would result in a psychological research agenda that includes research aligned with the telos of the Reciprocating Self (Balswick et al., 2016; King, 2016; King & Mangan, 2022) and further an understanding of diverse individual, relational, and aspirational development. For example, research needs to further address the psychological capacities necessary for authentic relationships for all persons, including those that are neuro-atypical, throughout the lifespan in various contexts, such as culture and/or technology. Psychological science should pursue the thought processes and emotions involved in experiencing and responding to God’s love and investigate spiritual practices and habits that continue and refine the thriving process. For example, how do people cultivate virtues that allow for the fortitude and flexibility of knowing, feeling, and doing what is right and good in different settings? Psychologists must ask how does a science of healing and growth promote justice and joy for all? For the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams (2018), justice is the right to self-expression and to be equipped to contribute to God’s kingdom and be conformed to the likeness of Christ. How can psychological science embrace specificity and the complexity of how diverse persons develop more fully as themselves in different contexts in a manner that considers individual differences, preserves volition, and furthers individuals’ abilities to contribute to the world beyond themselves?
As clinicians, Volf’s theology imbues great value to the therapeutic relationship. God’s indwelling through the Holy Spirit allows for therapeutic relationships to become islands where pain, anger, hate, and despair might come into contact with the love, peace, and yes, even joy that is the New Jerusalem might break into the reality that is now. It also provides a vision of thriving for therapists that goes beyond the medical model often promoted and emphasizes the importance of nurturing the psychological capacities that allow patients to thrive through pursuing purpose. As Christian clinicians not only can we walk with our patients toward health but toward a deeply meaningful life based in the telos of reciprocal relationality imbued with love. Volf compels clinicians to view their ministries of healing and restoration as means toward thriving and purpose.
Conclusion
In this article, we argue that Volf’s work offers a resounding exhortation reminding followers of Jesus that the gospel narrative is about not only what Jesus saved us from, but also what Jesus saved us for. Our vocation as psychologists is to participate in God’s ongoing work of restoration and flourishing of all persons and creation as ourselves, with and for others, as we become more like Christ. As humans grow and our world continues to change, we must ensure that our psychological tools—theories, methods, interventions, and practices—are geared toward keeping all diverse persons and all of creation on the road to the New Jerusalem. In doing so, psychologists can be even more effective frontline workers to promote thriving people who contribute to flourishing communities, systems, and the planet.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
