Roots of Flourishing

Christopher J. Lisanti, MD
  • 5.0 (12)
  • Health & Fitness

We explore the big picture of our humanity through medical knowledge, philosophical reasoning, and theological insights leading to a better understanding of human flourishing.

  1. 11/22/2025

    The Good of Play

    We look at the basic good of play.   There are three reasons why people play games.  1) to win, 2) for the love of the game, and 3) for the love of the people we play with.  As long as we value the love of the game and the love of the people above the desire to win, we will have a good gaming experience, avoid being a "sore loser" or "prideful victor", and promote our own virtues.   Playing games entails valuing something that is unnecessary.  In a way, God's creation is a sort of game where God made something that was unnecessary to Him.  He did it for the love of His creation.  Additionally, our reactions to the outcome of games can also increase our faith or show us where we may still have room to grow.    Hoping that you will have a great gaming experience next time you play ... win, lose or draw.   E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com

    17 min

  2. 05/15/2025

    A Biblical Understanding of Flourishing

    This episode looks at a Biblical view of flourishing through the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-5:  "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." The understanding of the heart according to Professor Scott Redd "refers to the general cognitive and volitional capacities of the person.”  In other words, our thoughts, emotions, and desires or the psychologic aspect of our humanity.  The challenge is to recognize that our thoughts, emotions, and desires can be self-serving and frequently counterproductive to our own flourishing while harmful to others around us.  Replacing those with Godly thoughts, emotions, and desires is the pathway to flourishing. Soul is not just spiritual but according to Professor Redd “speaks to the person, the self, perhaps the whole of the person as a person including the body.”  Thus, we have to love God with the wholeness of our being to include our bodies.  Viewing our bodies as God's gift to us should remind and challenge us to use our bodies wisely and with gratitude, and not to misuse or abuse them for our own self-centered desires.   Finally, strength as Scott Redd says “should be thought of as ‘worldly effect’: the consequence of a person’s life, their relationships, influences, transactions, property, investments, and the like.”  This is the social dimension of our humanity which includes everything outside of ourselves in this world.  Work is an important part of our humanity that God placed us here for.  Work can either be creative echoing God's creative work in Genesis or redemptive (making things whole) as with Jesus' work where he healed bodies, restored relationships amongst people, and ultimately reconciled our relationship to God.  We must view all work in this world both chosen and unchosen as within God's will and useful for our growth and the building up of the Kingdom of God.  However, our emotions and desires get in the way, and need to be changed so that we see all things as an opportunity for God's Kingdom rather than an obstacle to our kingdom.  God's Word and short prayers such as the Jesus Prayer can be powerful for us to realize the situation in our lives as God sees it.   References The Wholeness Imperative: How Christ Unifies our Desires, Identity and Impact in the World by Scott Redd The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com

    23 min

  3. 02/28/2025

    Identities Part 5: The Ultimate Identity ... in Christ

    This last of a five-part series on identity analyzes an identity in Christ.  This identity answers the three fundamental questions:  who is my God (spiritual dimension), who is my neighbor (social) and who am I (psychologic dimension).  God is the trinitarian God proclaimed and embodied in Jesus Christ.  Our primary duties and obligations lie in the first two questions through the two greatest commandments … love of God and love of neighbor.  These loving relationships then answer the question of who I am with the answer that I am a child of God and an apprentice or disciple of Jesus.   An identity in Christ best answers our five clarifying questions. 1.     How much is it based on truth?  Jesus stated that he was truth.  God’s holy word is both internally consistent and externally validated through various truths and historical facts.   2.     How unifying is it?  The ethic of love transcends any ethnic, racial, or gender lines.  This identity is open to any who put faith in, trust in, and follow Jesus.  Ultimately, there will still be a division between those who follow Jesus and those who follow their own self-invented identity and desires.   3.     How competitive is it or willing to harm basic goods?  The ethic of love along with the definition of love (willing and taking actions to promote another’s good) means that it is antithetical to be in Christ and intentionally harm another’s good.  Jesus challenges us to not only love our friends and family but also our enemies.  4.     How meaningful is it?   And #5, How permanent is it? Since this identity will be an eternal one that cannot be taken away by anyone, it is then very permanent.  Also, the eternal nature of this identity means that its meaning will impact not just 70 or 80 years of a life, but forever.  This meaning will be manifested in the treasures we store up in heaven from our faithfulness to God and our good works.   References Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com

    25 min

  4. 01/05/2025

    Identities Part 4: Victimhood

    Critical theory is a way of looking at humanity through power imbalances that may have harmed a person’s human flourishing as currently defined by economic and/or sexual expression.  Critical theory's Achilles heel is that it is unclear about the future institutions and values that the revolution is aiming towards.  Thus, there is a faith in revolution for revolution sake. Power imbalances were initially defined as economic ones between bourgeoisie and the proletariat.  Critical race theory built upon these economic disparities through racial lines.  Lastly, power was interpreted not only economically but in any power structure that constrained behavior.  With Freud, sexual expression was posited as fundamental to what it means to be human and thus sexual constraints and the power within them must be eliminated. Now our humanity is increasingly seen through an economic and/or sexual expression lens.  However, increasing freedoms in these areas are not achieving happiness.   Categorizing an entire group of people based upon race and/or sexual expression is a very blunt and increasingly ineffective way of approaching individuals.  This turns people into objects.   This oppressor-victim dichotomy results in untruths about individuals and a great untruth of the good versus bad people.  This widens gaps and deepens divisions between people.  Fixing power imbalances by reversing power imbalances appears to be merely throwing kerosene on a raging fire.   Victimhood identity minimizes personal agency or moral responsibility which leads to fatalism and a sense of lack of control.  Furthermore, it allows "victims" to do wrong with little resistance leading to injustice.  Victim class is increasingly not applicable for many individuals within these historic groups as economic progress and community approval continue to move many previously disenfranchised people forward thus becoming less grounded in the truth.  Critical theory minimizes the importance of truth while also harming the basic good of work by hiring people who are less than fully qualified while also changing the parameters of what good work is in various categories such as science or medicine.  Intersectionality provides a pecking order or bragging rights for victim status which confers on these individuals even more power and even less moral responsibility.  Exerting power and lording it over others is now what the new power brokers do over everyone deemed inferior (prior oppressors).  References: To Change All Worlds by Carl Trueman  The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt How Identity Politics Is Harming the Sciences by Heather Mac DonaldE-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com

    31 min

  5. 11/01/2024

    Identities Part 3: Three Identities

    This is the 3rd of a five-part series on identity.  We analyze the identities of a Mandalorian (Star Wars series), a physician, and a member of the profession of arms.  We analyzed all three identities through our 5 questions.  All three identities were or are being challenged.  The first two (Mandalorian and physician) are challenged from within as to what are the core elements or what really defines the identity.  The challenge to the profession of arms is different as other identities rise up against the warrior identity for priority.   The Mandalorian resolved the tensions by adhering to a deeper common identity that anchored all Mandalorians even those who did not ascribe to prohibition against any living being to see their face that was a requirement in his group. Physician identity is currently in tension.  This tension stems from what is the goal or end of medicine which then drives differing duties and obligations to patients.  Sexual expression and sexually based identities require active participation from the medical profession that is increasingly turning healers into body engineers.  This turn has negative effects to the answers on all 5 of our clarifying questions.   The profession of arms or the warrior identity is also in tension, but its difficulty lies in rival identities to the warrior identity.  Identities based on race, ethnicity, sex, or sexual expression are increasingly valorized and celebrated which inevitably competes with and sometimes supersedes the warrior identity.  This tension results in decreased unit cohesion and degraded combat effectiveness.  Exchanging merit for racial or sexual based promotion degrades the good of the work of war further leading to decreased combat effectiveness.  These trends have also resulted in downward trends to all 5 of our questions.     References Preserving the Warrior Ethos by H.R. McMaster Irresistible Revolution by Matthew Lohmeier E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com

    31 min

  6. 10/10/2024

    Identities Part 2: Current Trends

    This is the 2nd of a five-part series on identity.  We review our current identity trends by answering our 5 questions that help us answer how good an identity is.  Our identities are currently psychologically driven.  Within the psychologic dimension, our desires drive our identity while our emotions act as gatekeepers deciding whether another person’s words will be allowable or not.  Our rational thought has a much lower priority.   Here are our 5 questions and insights regarding our current trends.  1.     How much is based on truth?  Current alternative truth claims regarding gender are having poor outcomes while denying the truth of parenthood shrivels the soul and destroys another life.   2.     How unifying is it?  A shared identity with common goals will result in an increase in the common good.  Multiplication of identities (e.g., 58 gender options) results in more division. Even biologic identities are becoming more individualized due to an emphasis on lived experience.   3.     How competitive is it?  Will it intentionally harm a basic good?  Transgenderism increasingly harms family friendship.  The biologic identity of parent is rejected by a self-created identity as a non-parent resulting in abortion.  Gender expression uses drugs and procedures that harm health.  Sexual expression identities result in risky sex and harms to health.  Sexual activity has harmed marriage with poor outcomes on every measure for children.  Freedom of speech is curtailed by strict speech codes to avoid any unwanted psychologic emotions, but this degrades the free exchange of ideas and harms knowledge.   4.     How meaningful is it?  Man needs meaning to survive.  Dr. Viktor Frankl said this “The more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love –the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself.”  Psychologically driven identities cause the individual to focus on the self rather than others which has led to poorer mental health and social division. 5.     How permanent is it?  Desires-driven identities vary with our emotions and desires.  Gender fluid people are never quite certain what their identity is and are continually searching for their real self which is disorienting and disintegrating.  Without a common moral horizon by which we can gauge our life, we use our own desires as the standard of meaning which inevitably will not lead to meaning or joy in life.   This inward turn towards the self for identity has been termed narcissism by many observers of Western culture. References Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment by Francis Fukuyama The Impact of Psychological Man—and How to Respond by Carl Trueman Superbia: The Perils of Pride. The Power of Humility by Dr. Steve Willing  Preserving the Warrior Ethos by H.R. McMaster E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com

    27 min

  7. 09/07/2024

    Identities Part 1: Fundamental Questions

    This is the first of a five-part series on identity.  It is useful to examine identities throughout history and up to our modern day by asking one or more of three fundamental questions.  Who is my God (spiritual dimension), who is my neighbor (social) and/or who am I (psychologic dimension). Historically up to the Enlightenment, a person’s identity was based upon the answers to the first two questions:  who my God is and who my neighbor is.  Duties and obligations then flowed from the answers to those two questions.  After the Enlightenment in the West, the question was pared down to predominantly who my neighbor is.  As opposed to prior times where frequently my neighbor was defined as people in my tribe, the West now sees neighbors as anyone who embraces a set of cultural standards.  These standards might be liberty, equality, and fraternity such as in France or constitutionalism, equality, democratic accountability, and rule of law as in America. Currently, neither of these two historical questions are being asked rather the question is now who I am.  As opposed to the orientation of what duties and obligations I had towards others, now this psychologic turn in identity asks what duties and obligations others have towards me that I can expect and even demand.  Our focus on rights language helps to fuel this 180-degree reversal.   Five questions can help us assess how valid or fruitful an identity is. 1.     How much is it based on truth?  An identity based on lies will not withstand the test of time and will likely result in harms to everyone (e.g., Nazi Germany or communist Soviet Union). 2.     How unifying is it?  Bringing people together around a shared vision with common goals will result in an increase in the common good.  Hard lines of division like those based on biologic characteristics or a multiplication of identities such as in gender options (58 according to Facebook) will result in more division. 3.     How competitive is it?  This can be gauged by how easy an identity will intentionally harm a basic good.  Harming basic goods brings about a decrease in human flourishing. 4.     How meaningful is it?  Man needs meaning to survive.  Meaning is one of the five hallmarks of human flourishing according to Marty Seligman.  Meaning is defined as “belonging to and serving something that you believe is bigger than the self.”   5.     How permanent is it?  A lack of permanence in one’s identity can lead to a scattered and disintegrated life, and to identity crises.     References Flourish by Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment by Francis Fukuyama The Impact of Psychological Man—and How to Respond by Carl Trueman Live Not by Lies by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com

    24 min

  8. 03/22/2024

    Errors of the Spiritual Dimension

    This episode concludes our examination of the spiritual dimension by analyzing common errors.    Error #1: Mistaking the social for the spiritual.  We think the religious service with its liturgy and building or obedience to social norms are the spiritual dimension.  Religious service attendance and doing the good and avoiding the evil should be encouraged.  However, to be complete, it needs to work towards the transcendent good, true, and beautiful along with a relationship with God in the spiritual dimension.  We need to live multi-dimensionally.  Error #2: An incomplete understanding of the spiritual.  Focusing inordinately on transcendent truths can ruin relationships and promote pride if it is not closely wedded to the virtues especially love and a relationship with God.  Intellectual humility is needed. Remember only God completely knows the truth.  Likewise, focusing on the good without the truth or a relationship with God can lead to either harsh judgmentalism (justice focused) or sappy sentimentalism (focused on a poorly defined and emotionally driven understanding of love).  Love is desiring the good for someone while doing it in a manner consistent with 1st Corinthians 13.  Error #3: Self-transcendence is the vital means to escape our psychologic dimension and embrace another dimension.  Self-transcendence is the metaphorical vehicle that takes you to another dimension but should not be confused with the destination.  Self-transcendence into the biologic includes yoga, chanting mantras, and breathing-focused techniques while acts into the social include being absorbed by nature, feeling another person’s pain or joy, or an activity where you enter a state of flow (aka engagement).  Being totally focused on the transcendent (the good, the true, the beautiful, and God Himself) is the definition of being in the spiritual dimension.  References A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Spirit Filled Life by Pastor Sean Azzaro Spirituality, religiousness, and mental health: A review of the current scientific evidence by Lucchetti, Koenig, and Granero Lucchetti How and How Not to be Happy by Professor J. Budziszewski Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization by Professor Brad Wilcox E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com

    29 min
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About

We explore the big picture of our humanity through medical knowledge, philosophical reasoning, and theological insights leading to a better understanding of human flourishing.

Information

  • Creator
    Christopher J. Lisanti, MD
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2025
  • Episodes
    30
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Roots of Flourishing
  • Show Website
    Roots of Flourishing