In our challenging world today, too many of us are languishing. Across the country and around the world, there are alarming rates of anxiety, loneliness, and depression (Murthy, 2023; World Health Organization, 2024). In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic uncertainty, and unsettling changes in our lives, many of us are feeling hopeless, helpless, and disconnected from a deeper sense of ourselves.

Centuries ago, in the wake of the bubonic plague pandemic, people began believing in themselves and their strengths, which led to the unprecedented creative flourishing of the Renaissance. For centuries, during the Middle Ages, theologians had taught that while most people merely worked to survive, only priests, monks, and nuns had a divine calling to live formal religious lives.

Then Reformation theologians began teaching that everyone had a calling, possessing personal God-given strengths. They maintained that it was the duty of every person to discover and use these strengths to fulfill their destinies, serve God, and contribute to their communities (Luther, 1535/1963, Calvin, 1536/1960).

In what was later known as the “self-fulfilling prophecy” (Rosenthal, & Jacobson,........

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