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When Hamilton Peacock ’25 was choosing courses for his final semester at 51���app, he saw a class he just couldn’t resist: a special topics course titled Life Worth Living.

The title was intriguing, but what really made it irresistible was the instructor, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and History Elias G. Saba, who had been Peacock’s tutorial professor seven semesters earlier. 

“To learn about methods of finding meaning in life from my first 51���app adviser right before graduating felt like too perfect a full circle moment to pass up,” Peacock says.

The Good Life

Last year, Saba received a Life Worth Living Faculty Course Development Fellowship from the Yale Center for Faith and Culture to develop the class. The $15,000 fellowship supports faculty as they design courses that guide students through the process of developing philosophies for a flourishing life. 

It’s something Saba had been thinking about for a long time. He wanted to encourage students to take some time out of their college experience to think about how their education might help them in their own life journeys. 

With that in mind, he created a course that encourages students to consider their own ideas on living a good life, while also comparing them with traditional religious thought about what a life worth living looks like.

“What are values that people have held in places very different from ours, and in times very different from ours?” Saba asks. “Do these old ways of thinking have something to teach us?” In the course, students also learned about a variety of different world religions from some of history’s great thinkers, including Confucius, Maimonides, and Enheduana, and others.

Some Things Never Change

Peacock says it has been striking to see how different and how similar to us the ancients were. 

“The authors we read from 1,000 or 2,000 years ago are often writing about the same things we debate today. How much personal suffering is good? What is really real? It’s oddly reassuring to see how little progress we’ve made in answering these questions since we started writing things down.”

The students wrote weekly reflections, completed small group assignments, and participated in class discussions. Some were comfortable opening up about their own lives in class discussions, Saba says, though it wasn’t required. In fact, he doesn’t really enjoy doing that himself. 

“This class is requiring me to be vulnerable in a way that I’m usually not in my teaching,” Saba says. “It is uncomfortable. But expressing my own vulnerability has been one of the things that has allowed students to do likewise.”

SaraGrace Lamb ’27, a religious studies major, says she appreciates the class discussions, which give her a chance to better understand what life looks like for her peers. “Class discussions are incredibly open,” she says. “Professor Saba leads the class by sharing personal anecdotes, not necessarily related to the topic, which creates a space of sharing. Discussions are respectful, often amusing, with the only real rule being ‘don't be mean.’”

Lamb adds, “I always come out with a better understanding of what life looks like for my peers and whichever religion we are discussing.”

Reflecting on Life’s Journey

This course is a beautiful fit with the mission of the Department of Religious Studies, which encourages students to take time for self-exploration, Saba explains.

Peacock says he expects to be thinking about this course material long after the class is over. “The authors we’ve read will undoubtedly float around in my mind and make themselves heard on occasion,” he says. “But the voice that is more likely to stick with me is Professor Saba’s.”