Dr. Miraslov Volf, the founder and director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture at Yale Divinity School, spoke at the Fulks Theatre inside the William Performing Arts Center on Monday.

Volf’s lecture covered his new book, “The Cost of Ambition,” and how Christians should respond to the culture of competition and superiority. The lecture portion of the event was open to the members of the Abilene community, not just ACU students.

Dr. Claire Davidson Frederick is the director of the Saunders Center for Joy and Human Flourishing. Alongside Dr. Richard Beck, the center’s goal is to cultivate flourishing holistically, and to help students grow spiritually, emotionally, physically, academically and relationally. While there is no physical building yet, the center’s new location will be open in the fall of 2026, in the Mabee wing of the library. 

“We want to create a space where students can come and experience joy, rest, renewal, and have conversations around what it means to live a good life,” said Frederick. “We want to help students have a place on campus where they feel like they matter.”

The Saunders Center helps students explore vocational discernment through their program “Things That Really Matter.” It leads lunches once a month for those who want to gather and discuss topics of interest to the students. It’s a place for intergenerational conversations that help students explore their calling. 

“It’s a safe space to discern ‘what is God calling me to?’” said Frederick. “‘And how can I use that calling to bring joy to others and joy to myself?’”

This is the first time the Saunders Center has had an event with a guest speaker such as Dr. Miraslov Volf. However, they hope to host smaller versions of this event with faculty members to have deeper conversations. 

“The work that [Volf] is doing in the Center for Faith and Culture has a lot of overlap with the work that we’re doing,” Frederick said. “Dr.Volf was friends with Landon Saunders, the man after whom our center is named.”

Working alongside the Saunders Center is the Siburt Institute for Church Ministry. 

Dr. David Kneip, associate professor in the Bible department, brought the involvement from the Siburt Institute. He was excited that with their connection with preachers, they were able to sponsor the event for the community, including local ministers.  

“[Volf] is somebody whose writings preachers and other church leaders read a lot,” Dr. Kneip said. “This is a guy that literally for decades preachers had been reading his stuff.”

Volf’s book focused on conversations relevant to church leaders, and the event was open to the community. The Siburt Institute hopes to continue conversations at its annual Summit gathering in October, which will feature multiple speakers.