Posts by Clay
Rethinking Happiness, Values, and Success
This fall, I am teaching an undergraduate course at Vanderbilt focusing on the notion of success and the American Dream, a concept defined in many different ways. We started the semester with some basic working hypotheses. First, in the Declaration of Independence,...
The Enneagram and Relationships
On Wednesday nights, we are starting a brand-new series with Hunter Mobley focusing on “The Enneagram and Relationships.” Dinner will be at 5:30 and his talk will begin at 6:15 pm. This will take place on Wednesday nights, September 25th, October 2nd, and October 9th....
7 Key Challenges for 21st Century Christianity
I recently gave a talk about the church of the future. This is a subject that I think about often and it’s on the mind of many church leaders. Within mainline Christianity, denominational decline and statistics are depressing. Many churches are aging and struggling to...
Religion, Hope, and the American Dream
Columbia University professor Andrew Delbanco published a fascinating book in 1999 titled The Real American Dream: A Meditation on Hope. In the book, he gives a spiritual history of our nation and how each generation has worked to create a culture of meaning to make...
The Lost Art of Peacemaking
In his most famous sermon, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” To that, he added, “If you are angry at a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment.” In the gospel of John, he tells the disciples, “My peace I...
What Mass Shootings Reveal About Our Culture
I was a freshman in college when the Columbine massacre occurred in 1999. I remember watching the news coverage in my dorm room, completely dismayed that somebody would do such an evil thing at a high school. If you remember, the killers asked some of the young...