2020 is hindsight.

But we will feel its impact for years to come. Throughout this year of distance, loss, division, and loneliness, we were surprised to find collaboration, communication, and an opportunity for future hope. God was in the midst of the storm.

Even in the harshest of circumstances, our work flourished this year. We have continued our work to help people envision and pursue lives worthy of our humanity. We continue discerning, articulating, and commending visions of flourishing in light of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. And we continue to foster truth-seeking conversations among the contending visions in our world today.

Thank you for your support and partnership in 2020. We invite you to read about the impact our work has made. It was the result of a joyful partnership with you.

A Message from Our Director Miroslav Volf

My friends,

Christian faith has an inalienable public dimension. And the past year should be evidence for all of us that the substance of that public expression matters deeply.

Our work at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture is to provide a faithful witness to the person and work of Christ, as we repair the broken bridges of a divided country, divided world, divided church, and divided humanity.

We’ve produced this annual report for you—our partners, supporters, collaborators, and friends—to express our gratitude for the joyful work you and others have made possible, and to celebrate the opportunities for stewardship that we have been given, even in one of the most challenging years in recent memory.

In this brief report, we offer an overview of 2020 projects and activities at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. You’ll find highlights from teaching Yale Divinity and Yale College students, our research and writing, updates on our Christ & Flourishing and Life Worth Living initiatives, grant project updates, speaking engagements, and media and communications development.

Most of the artwork you’ll find throughout this report was originally featured alongside episodes of our podcast For the Life of the World—you can find more on our newly redesigned website, faith.yale.edu. We have also included reflections, anecdotes, and soundbites from our staff, students, faculty partners, and contributors.

As we find ourselves in the wake of 2020, many of us still feel an abyss of uncertainty and anxiety about the state of our country, our world, our church, and even our species. Early on in the pandemic crisis, I spoke to our team and the wider public about living hope rooted in the resurrection of Christ. It is the same kind of hope that we see in Abraham: hope when there is reason to hope, and decidedly hope when there is no reason to hope. It is this hope that sustained us during this year.

In the spirit of that same hope, I invite you to the same conviction and resolve which founded the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: to seek lives worthy of our humanity—constantly discerning, articulating, and commending visions of flourishing life, and doing so in light of the life and wisdom of Jesus Christ, who I believe remains the key to human flourishing today.

Thank you for your partnership in 2020; may we find peace in 2021.

Yours,