What does it really mean to flourish — not just as individuals, but as communities, cultures and societies? In this episode of Today’s Conversation, Byron Johnson, distinguished professor of social sciences at Baylor University and co–director of the Global Flourishing Study, expands our vision of human flourishing to a global scale.

Byron Johnson joins NAE President Walter Kim to unpack surprising and hopeful findings emerging from the Global Flourishing Study, a groundbreaking international research project he leads in collaboration with Harvard University and others. Together, they explore how flourishing is being measured across the world and why it matters now more than ever — for people of faith, for the Church and for the future of society. 

In their conversation, they explore: 

  • What makes the Global Flourishing Study a truly unprecedented effort;  
  • Why flourishing is about more than just health and wealth — it’s also about purpose, relationships and faith; 
  • How the Church plays a vital role in shaping holistic well-being; and 
  • How the Bible offers a compelling vision of what it means to thrive. 

Subscribe today wherever you listen to podcasts.

Do you like the podcast?
Give us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts and leave us a review. This is the best way for others to discover these conversations. If you listen on Spotify, give us a follow and hit the notification bell to be sure you never miss an episode. And don’t forget to pass your favorite episodes along to colleagues, friends and family.

Resources

 

Today’s Conversation is brought to you by Talbot School of Theology.

 

 

Read a Portion of the Transcript

Walter: Talk a little bit more about your particular angle on human flourishing. You're working on global human flourishing. What's that all about?

Byron: Yeah, most of the research in the world is done in the United States and done on Americans. It's not that there isn't research in places like Europe; There is, but the vast majority is here. So it's Western centric.

And we've discovered a lot of things over the years that are very important and powerful predictors of all kinds of behaviors. But there is this gaping hole in, for example, the global South. We just don't have the research in these other areas.

So the flourishing work has been very important here in the U.S. But the idea would be, can you do this work around the world? Are other societies, even though they're so dramatically different than our own, that we might we find the same kinds of things?

Byron Johnson

Dr. Byron Johnson is the co-director of the Global Flourishing Study, a $43.4 million, five-year longitudinal research initiative that aims to map the multidimensional landscape of human flourishing across 22 countries and over 200,000 participants. He is also Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences and the founding director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. Johnson is a former member of the Coordinating Council for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and  served as a principal investigator on grants totaling more than $80 million from agencies including the Department of Justice, Department of Labor, Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health and the United States Institute for Peace. He is recognized as a leading authority on the scientific study of religion, the efficacy of faith-based organizations, and criminal justice. Johnson is the author of “More God, Less Crime: Why Faith Matters and How It Could.” He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology.

Walter Kim

Walter Kim became the president of the National Association of Evangelicals in January 2020. He previously served as a pastor at Boston’s historic Park Street Church and at churches in Vancouver, Canada and Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as a campus chaplain at Yale University. He preaches, writes and engages in collaborative leadership to connect the Bible to the intellectual and cultural issues of the day. He regularly teaches in conferences and classrooms; addresses faith concerns with elected officials and public institutions; and provides theological and cultural commentary to leading news outlets. He serves on the boards of Christianity Today and World Relief and consults with a wide range of organizations. Kim received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, his M.Div. from Regent College in Vancouver, and his B.A. from Northwestern University.