What makes an education socially valuable?

Education & Human Flourishing What Makes an Education Socially Valuable? We know how to calculate what a degree earns. We have a much harder time counting what an educated person makes possible in the lives of others. Victor Counted September 2026 The Flourishing Journal I have spent more of my life inside universities than most people spend in their first career. I earned two doctorates on two continents, one in health psychology (Western Sydney University, Australia) and one in religious studies (The University of Groningen, Netherlands). By the logic of a spreadsheet, I should be able to tell you exactly what that education was worth. But unfortunately, naively, I cannot.…

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The Life Beyond Achievement

The Empty Self A decades-old critique of American psychology helps explain why focusing on just the self never seem to be enough. By Victor Counted • The Flourishing Journal • 9 min read You finally buy the thing you have wanted for months. For a few days, perhaps a few weeks, it works. Something inside you settles. There is usually a rush of excitement. You feel more confident about your purchase. Then the feeling fades, and another object takes its place in your imagination. We usually explain this pattern as materialism or poor self-control. If you are a Marshmellow Test's fan, you perhaps might say that it is a lack…

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The Flavor of Character

The Savor of Character Character Formation The Flavor of Character Competence is light. It exposes. But light alone blinds a room, and the thing that makes truth bearable is not more light. It is salt. The Flourishing Journal It has been almost a month since I last wrote for The Flourishing Journal. I had planned to take a short summer break, but a health challenge extended that pause and forced me to slow down more than I expected. There is something clarifying about being forced to stop. You begin to notice your limits, the people around you, and the qualities that matter when productivity and competence temporarily recede. I found…

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The Good Life is a Sent Life

Why the Good Life Is a Sent Life — The Flourishing Journal The Flourishing Journal Missional Flourishing Why the Good Life Is a Sent Life We have learned to picture flourishing as something we gather and hold. The oldest blessing in Scripture, and the newest findings in wellbeing science, both say otherwise. By Victor Counted • The Flourishing Journal Missional theology has always confessed something strange about God: that God is a missionary God. We see this claim masterfully discussed in the seminal work of missiologist, David Bosch, in his book Transforming Mission. In other words, God the Father sends the Son. The Son sends the Spirit. The Spirit sends…

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The Sin of Calling a Human Being “Illegal”

Why Referring to Another Human Being as an "Illegal Alien" Is Ungodly and Evil | The Flourishing Journal Place & Belonging · Part II The Sin of Calling a Person "Illegal" Before a single home is burned or a single family is torn apart, a word has already done the work. The second essay in a series on the global anti-foreigner wave examines the vocabulary that makes it. VC Victor Counted The Flourishing Journal · July 2026 I want you to imagine a driver who breaks the speed limit on the way to work. We do not call him or her an illegal driver. Also consider a person who jaywalks…

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There Is No Such Thing as Spiritual but Not Religious

The Sacred Core: What My Students Taught Me About Religion and Spirituality Psychology of Religion The Sacred Core: Rethinking Religion vs. Spirituality A classroom argument over the "spiritual but not religious" turned into a deeper question: are religion and spirituality two things, or one search wearing different clothes? VC Dr. Victor Counted The Flourishing Journal It started, as the best class discussions often do, with a disagreement. This healthy disagreement, I must say, has been ongoing throughout the semester. This time, we were working through the standard definitions in my psychology of religion course, the ones every textbook offers: religion as the institutional and doctrinal thing, and spirituality as the…

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Three Mental Health Crises in Our World Today

Three Crises in Our World Today — The Flourishing Journal The Flourishing Journal Three Crises in Our World Today Identity, loneliness, and meaning look like three problems. I want to tell you why I think they are a problem of belonging. VC Victor Counted, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology, Regent University · Faculty Affiliate, Harvard Human Flourishing Program I have spent most of my adult life studying what makes people flourish. I have also spent most of my adult life trying to flourish. Some seasons it was easier. Some seasons it was not. What I can tell you is this. Something is hurting people in our day that was not…

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Place Dissatisfaction and the Spatial Cost of Unemployment

Place Dissatisfaction and the Spatial Cost of Unemployment | The Flourishing Journal The Flourishing Journal Work & Place Global Flourishing Study  ·  Employment & Place Satisfaction Place Dissatisfaction and theSpatial Cost of Unemployment The unemployed are the least place-satisfied group on earth — ranking below immigrants, the divorced, and the young. They have not moved. Their city has not changed. Something else has. Global Flourishing Study data across 22 countries illuminate what unemployment actually costs, and why income replacement is only part of the answer. Victor Counted The Flourishing Journal May 2026 9 min read 65% Unemployed satisfied with their city #34 Lowest of all demographic groups studied 84% Employed…

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The Most City-Satisfied People on Earth Are Over 80

The Most City-Satisfied People on Earth Are Over 80 | The Flourishing Journal The Flourishing Journal Place & City Global Flourishing Study  ·  Place Satisfaction The Most City-Satisfied People on EarthAre Over 80 Across 22 countries and tens of thousands of respondents, the Global Flourishing Study surfaces a result that overturns almost everything we assume about age, cities, and the quality of urban life. Victor Counted The Flourishing Journal Research Report 93% Adults 80+ satisfied with their city 75% Adults 18–24 satisfied with their city 18pt Gap between oldest and youngest adults The Global Flourishing Study did not set out to say anything particular about the elderly. It set out…

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