What if the church were known not for culture wars or abuses of power, but for building parks, strengthening schools, advancing science education, and championing restorative justice?
That’s the vision Amy L. Sherman lays out in her book Agents of Flourishing. In this conversation, Sherman invites us to imagine faith communities not as insular institutions, but as agents of civic renewal—places that contribute to the common good.
Her framework centers on six “endowments” of a thriving society: the Good, the True, the Beautiful, the Just, the Prosperous, and the Sustainable. Each is a way of asking how theology might shape public life: how churches partner with schools, support economic models that value workers and neighborhoods, invest in the arts, and even help design more beautiful and livable cities.
At its heart, this is a call to recover a holistic, biblically grounded vision of shalom—where faith is not reduced to Sunday services or private belief, but becomes a public witness for wholeness in our relationships, institutions, and communities.
Show Notes, Resources and Transcript
No Small Endeavor: Exploring what it means to live a good life, with thought provoking conversations about human flourishing, theology, politics, faith, social sciences, search for meaning, meaning and purpose, practices, common good, truth beauty and goodness, productivity, habit formation, neuroscience, science and religion, social justice, cardinal virtues, how of happiness, theology and culture, self development, happiness, virtue theory, being human, moral philosophy, community
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