Residential Phase for the First Cohort of the From Despair to Hope Project Begins at CTI
Thanks to a $4.5 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation, CTI is undertaking a three-year inquiry into several despair-ridden dimensions of contemporary life and forging a new, interdisciplinary theology of hope to address them. The project is entitled From Despair to Hope: Interdisciplinary Theology in the Service of Building Spiritual Capital. It aims to advance understandings of—and to provide resources for—the ways that people lead meaningful lives and pursue spiritual flourishing amidst an era of rapid change in which hope has given way to despair and, at least in the West, organized religion has declined.
Spiritual capital refers to worldviews, values, beliefs, practices, communities, organizations, and traditions that enable and sustain human authenticity, purpose, and virtue. The Despair to Hope project will build such capital through five sequential, interdisciplinary theological investigations into areas in which hope is especially needed: (1) Technology and Artificial Intelligence; (2) Civics and Democracy; (3) Youth and Education; (4) Health and Medicine; and (5) Entrepreneurship and Economics. This project will support these investigations through a simultaneous, synoptic inquiry into hope.
Led by CTI Director Tom Greggs as Principal Investigator, experimental psychologist and Anglican priest Jonathan Jong as Co-Investigator, CTI Associate Director Joshua Mauldin as Associate Lead, and Professors Valerie Cooper and Amos Yong as Senior Fellows, the project will convene five consecutive cohorts of 6 fellows for an investigation composed of three phases: (1) a 16 week virtual inquiry into interdisciplinary material pertinent to hope led by an inter-disciplinary consultant, including a curriculum of readings, lectures, and workshops; (2) a 16 week residential phase devoted to writing and discussion of work in progress; and (3) a 16 week public inquiry focused on avenues to research impact.
This week, the cohort examining Technology and Artificial Intelligence began the Residential Phase of its inquiry in Princeton. In addition to the overall project leadership, this cohort includes Elise Edwards, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at Baylor University, Paula Sweeney, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen, Henco van der Westhuizen, Associate Professor of Historical and Constructive Theology at the University of the Free State, William Willimon, Professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry at Duke Divinity School, and Laurie Zoloth, Margaret E. Burton Chair of Religion and Ethics at the University of Chicago.
Members of the Despair to Hope project will produce scholarly monographs, edited volumes, open access Conversaziones, podcasts, videos, public events, global webinars, and magazine articles. They will also contribute to CTI’s new Substack: “Theology for Our Times.” Cumulatively, these outputs are intended to build spiritual capital that will increase hope globally in measurable ways.