“Life Worth Living” Program Saturday Workshop

Director of Yale’s Wildly Popular “Life Worth Living” Program to Lead Saturday Workshop
at Trinity Spiritual Center

Best-selling Author and Scholar Matthew Croasmun will provide tools for discerning where our lives hold meaning

On Saturday, March 1, Matthew Croasmun, Senior Lecturer and Program Director at Yale University will visit Southport to share several foundational components of “Life Worth Living,” the wildly popular undergraduate course that he directs at Yale.

Croasmun will offer a one-day, interactive workshop designed to help participants begin to answer the big questions that arise when we consciously consider what shape a life worth living might look like for each one of us.  He will address such vital questions as: Who do we answer to? How does a good life feel? What should we hope for? How should we live? What should we do when we fail? What is the role of suffering in a good life?

The program will provide participants with jumping-off points, road maps, and habits of reflection for discerning where our lives hold meaning and where things might need to change.

This mini retreat is drawn from the coursework of the “Live Worth Living” humanities course that Matthew co-teaches for Yale undergraduates.  For 12 years students have annually engaged with visions of seven modern figures and foundational texts that influenced them: Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Tanakh, the Dalai Lama and the ancient Buddhist sutras, Mohandas Gandhi and the Bhagavad Gita, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Bible, Robin Wall Kimmerer and North American Indigenous wisdom, A. Helwa and the Quran, and Oscar Wilde and expressive individualism.

These in-class explorations and discussions gave rise to the creation of a national bestseller, Life Worth Living: A Guidebook to What Matters Most: a collection of wisdom texts and questions that helps readers define and create a flourishing life for themselves.

Croasmun is Senior Lecturer and the director of the Life Worth Living program at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School. He is an ordained Christian minister and served as the founding pastor of the Elm City Vineyard Church (ECV), a dynamic, diverse, urban church. Matt received his B.A. in Music from Yale College, an M.A.R. in Bible from Yale Divinity School, and a PhD in Religious Studies from Yale University. A musician at heart, he enjoys playing soccer, squash and basketball.

This workshop is the latest in a series of offerings that Trinity Spiritual Center has created for 2024-2025 Programming Season which is dedicated to helping a broad community of seekers to find more joy, wonder and meaning in their daily lives. It will be followed by a Zoom gathering with Chip Conley, founder of Modern Elder Academy, who helps people reimagine their lives in their 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s, on Thursday, April 10 at 7:30 PM. A bestselling author and TED speaker on the mainstage, Conley will share tips for charging up the middle stages of life with a renewed sense of purpose and possibility.

“My deepest passion is for teaching,” says Croasmun. “I believe education should help us learn, most of all, what it means to be human and how to discern the nature of a true life.  The Life Worth Living program does exactly this, inviting participants to come to grips with their most pressing existential questions with the very best of their intellectual energies, equipping them for the lifelong process of pursuing lives worthy of our shared humanity.”

“We are thrilled to have an opportunity to benefit from Matthew’s keen mind and expansive heart,” notes Trinity Spiritual Center Director, Mark Grayson. “If you are looking for ways to build a life with more meaning, wonder and purpose, this is the retreat for you! No prior knowledge or experience with any of the texts is needed – just an open mind.”

The workshop is open to all. There is a $40 fee for the event, which includes a lunch on Saturday. Copies of his book Life Worth Living will be on sale during the event.  Registration is required (details follow).

About Trinity Spiritual Center

Trinity Spiritual Center is a dynamic and growing community of people of all ages and beliefs, engaging in a broad range of learning experiences to inspire and support their own journeys of spiritual growth.  It offers programs and practices that inspire and engage the greater community. Trinity Spiritual Center is pleased to be partnered with Trinity Episcopal Church.

About Trinity Episcopal Church
Trinity Episcopal Church is located in the historic seaside district of Southport at 651 Pequot Avenue (at Center Street) and welcomes seekers of all denominations. Trinity’s mission is to provide a vibrant 21^st century Episcopal community that inspires spiritual growth, nurtures genuine connections and promotes charitable service.