Miroslav Volf

Theologian Miroslav Volf reflects on solitude, loneliness, and how being alone can reveal our humanity, selfhood, and relationship with God. This episode is part 1 of a 5-part series, SOLO, which explores the theological, moral, and psychological dimensions of loneliness, solitude, and being alone. “Solitude brings one back in touch with who one is—it’s how we stabilize ourselves so we know how to be ourselves with others.” Macie Bridge welcomes Miroslav for a conversation on solitude and being oneself—probing the difference between loneliness and aloneness, and the essential role of solitude in a flourishing Christian life. Reflecting on Genesis, the Incarnation, and the sensory life of faith, Volf considers how we can both embrace solitude and attend to the loneliness of others. He shares personal reflections on his mother’s daily prayer practice and how solitude grounded her in divine presence. Volf describes how solitude restores the self before God and others: “Nobody can be me instead of me.” It is possible, he suggests, that we can we rediscover the presence of God in every relationship—solitary or shared. Helpful Links and Resources The Cost of Ambition: How Striving to Be Better Than Others Makes Us Worse Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours (Buch der Stunden) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Creation and Fall Episode Highlights “Nobody can be me instead of me. And since I must be me, to be me well, I need times with myself.” “It’s not good, in almost a metaphysical sense, for us to be alone. We aren’t ourselves when we are simply alone.” “Solitude brings one back in touch with who one is—it’s how we stabilize ourselves so we know how to be ourselves with others.” “Our relationship to God is mediated by our relationships to others. To honor another is to honor God.” “When we attend to the loneliness of others, in some ways we tend to our own loneliness.” Solitude, Loneliness, and Flourishing The difference between solitude (constructive aloneness) and loneliness (diminishment of self). COVID-19 as an amplifier of solitude and loneliness. Volf’s experience of being alone at Yale—productive solitude without loneliness. Loneliness as “the absence of an affirming glance.” Aloneness as essential for self-reflection and renewal before others. Humanity, Creation, and Relationship Adam’s solitude in Genesis as an incomplete creation—“It is not good for man to be alone.” Human beings as fundamentally social and political. A newborn cannot flourish without touch and gaze—relational presence is constitutive of personhood. Solitude and communion exist in dynamic tension; both must be rightly measured. Jesus’s Solitude and Human Responsibility Jesus withdrawing to pray as a model of sacred solitude. Solitude allows one to “return to oneself,” guarding against being lost in the crowd. The danger of losing selfhood in relationships, “becoming echoes of the crowd.” God, Limits, and Others Every other person as a God-given limit—“To honor another is to honor God.” Violating others as transgressing divine boundaries. True spirituality as respecting the space, limit, and presence of the other. Touch, Senses, and the Church The sensory dimension of faith—seeing,

Miroslav Volf critiques ambition, love of status, and superiority, offering a Christ-shaped vision of agapic love and humble glory. “’And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?’ If you received everything you have as a gift and if your existence as the recipient is also a gift, all ground for boasting is gone. Correspondingly, striving for superiority over others, seeking to make oneself better than others and glorying in that achievement, is possible only as an existential lie. It is not just a lie that all strivers and boasters tell themselves. More troublingly, that lie is part of the ideology that is the wisdom of a certain twisted and world-negating form of the world.” In Lecture 5, the final of his Gifford Lectures, Miroslav Volf offers a theological and moral vision that critiques the dominant culture of ambition, superiority, and status. Tracing the destructive consequences of Epithumic desire and the relentless “race of honors,” Volf contrasts them with agapic love—God’s self-giving, unconditional love. Drawing from Paul’s Christ hymn in Philippians 2 and philosophical insights from Rousseau, Nietzsche, and Max Scheler, Volf reveals the radical claim that striving for superiority is not merely harmful but fundamentally false. Through Christ’s self-emptying, even to the point of death, we glimpse a redefinition of glory that subverts all worldly hierarchies. The love that saves is the love that descends. In a world ravaged by competition, inequality, and devastation, Volf calls for fierce, humble, and world-affirming love—a love that mends what can be mended, and makes the world home again. Episode Highlights “Striving for superiority over others… is possible only as an existential lie.” “Jesus Christ was no less God and no less glorious at his lowest point.” “To the extent that I’m striving for superiority, I cannot love myself unless I am the GOAT.” “God cancels the standards of the kind of aspiration whose goal is superiority.” “This is neither self-denial nor denial of the world. This is love for the world at work.” Show Notes Agapic love vs. Epithemic desire and self-centered striving “Striving for superiority… is possible only as an existential lie.” Paul’s hymn in Philippians 2 and the “race of shame” Rousseau: striving for superiority gives us “a multitude of bad things” Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity and pursuit of power Max Scheler: downward love, not upward striving “Jesus Christ was no less God and no less glorious at his lowest point.” Self-love as agapic: “I am entirely a gift to myself.” Raphael’s Transfiguration and the chaos below Demon possession as symbolic of systemic and spiritual powerlessness “To the extent that I’m striving for superiority, I cannot love myself unless I am the GOAT.” “The world is the home of God and humans together.” God’s love affirms the dignity of even the most unlovable creature Love as spontaneous overflow, not moral condescension “Mending what can be mended… mourning with those who mourn and dancing with those who rejoice.” Production Notes This podcast featured Miroslav Volf Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa Hosted by Evan Rosa Production Assistance by Taylor Craig and Macie Bridge A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give Special thanks to Dr. Paul Nimmo, Paula Duncan, and the media team at the University of Aberdeen. Thanks also to the Templeton Religion T

Miroslav Volf explores agapic love, creation’s goodness, and God’s grief—an alternative to despair, power, and world rejection. “When a wanted child is born, the immense joy of many parents often renders them mute, but their radiant faces speak of surprised delight: ‘Just look at you! It is so very good that you are here!’ This delight precedes any judgment about the beauty, functionality, or moral rectitude of the child. The child’s sheer existence, the mere fact of it, is ‘very good.’ That’s what I propose God, too, exclaimed, looking at the new-born world. And that unconditional love grounds creation’s existence.” In this fourth Gifford Lecture, Miroslav Volf contrasts the selective and self-centered love of Ivan Karamazov with the radically inclusive, unconditional love of Father Zosima. Drawing deeply from Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov , Genesis’s creation and flood narratives, and Hannah Arendt’s concept of amor mundi , Volf explores a theology of agapic love: unearned, universal, and enduring. This is the love by which God sees creation as “very good”—not because it is perfect, but because it exists. It’s the love that grieves corruption without destroying it, that sees responsibility as mutual, and that offers the only hope for life in a deeply flawed world. With references to Luther, Nietzsche, and modern visions of power and desire, Volf challenges us to ask what kind of love makes a world, sustains it, and might one day save it. “Love the world,” he insists, “or lose your soul.” Episode Highlights “The world will either be loved with unconditional love, or it'll not be loved at all.” “Unconditional love abides. If the object of love is in a state that can be celebrated, love rejoices. If it is not, love mourns and takes time to help bring it back to itself.” “Each is responsible for all. Each is guilty for all. Each needs forgiveness from all. Each must forgive all.” “Creation is not primarily sacramental or iconic. It is an object of delight both for humans and for God.” “Agapic love demands nothing from the beloved, though it cares and hopes much for them and for the shared world with them.” Show Notes Schopenhauer and Nietzsche’s visions of happiness: pleasure and power as substitutes for love “Love as hunger”: the devouring nature of epithemic desire Ivan Karamazov’s tragic love for life—selective, gut-level, and self-focused “There is still… this wild and perhaps indecent thirst for life in me” Father Zosima’s universal love for “every leaf and every ray of God’s light” “Love man also in his sin… Love all God’s creation” Sonya and Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment : love as restoration “She loved him and stayed with him—not although he murdered, but because he murdered” God’s declaration in Genesis: “And look—it was very good” Hannah Arendt’s amor mundi —“I want you to be” as pure affirmation Creation as gift: “Each is itself by being more than itself” Martin Luther on marriage, sex, and delight as godly pleasures The flood as hypothetical: divine grief replaces divine destruction “It grieved God to his heart”—grief as a form of agapic love “Each is responsible for all. Each is guilty for all.” Agape over erotic love: not reward and punishment, but faithful presence and care “Agapic love demands nothing… It is free, sovereign to love, humble.” Closing invitation: to live the life of love, under whatever circumstances Production Notes This podcast featured Miroslav Volf Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa Hosted by Evan Rosa Production Assistance by Taylor Craig and Macie Bridge A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School <a href

Miroslav Volf critiques Nietzsche’s vision of power, love, and suffering—and offers Jesus’s unconditional love as a more excellent way. The idea that competitive and goalless striving to increase one's power is the final Good, does very important work in Nietzsche’s philosophy. For Nietzsche, striving is good. Happiness does not rest in feeling that one's power is growing. In the modern world, individuals are, as Nietzsche puts it, ‘crossed everywhere with infinity.’ … And therefore condemn to ceaseless striving … The will to power aims at surpassing the level reached at any given time. And that goal can never be reached. You're always equally behind. Striving for superiority so as to enhance power does not just elevate some, the stronger ones. If the difference in power between parties increases, the weak become weaker in socially significant sense, even if their power has objectively increased. Successful striving for superiority inferiorizes.” In this third installment of his Gifford Lectures, Miroslav Volf offers a trenchant critique of Friedrich Nietzsche’s moral philosophy—especially his exaltation of the will to power, his affirmation of eternal suffering, and his agonistic conception of love. Nietzsche, Volf argues, fails to cultivate a love that can endure possession, withstand unworthiness, or affirm the sheer existence of the other. Instead, Nietzsche’s love quickly dissolves into contempt. Drawing from Christian theology, and particularly Jesus’s teaching that God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good alike, Volf explores a different kind of love—agapic, unconditional, and presuppositionless. He offers a vision of divine love that is not driven by need or achievement but that affirms existence itself, regardless of success, strength, or status. In the face of suffering, Nietzsche's amor fati falters—but Jesus’s embrace endures. Episode Highlights "The sun, in fact, has no need to bestow its gift of light and warmth. It gains nothing from imparting its gifts." "Love that is neither motivated by need nor based on worthiness—that is the kind of love Nietzsche thought prevented Jesus from loving humanity and earth." "Nietzsche aspires to transfiguration of all things through value-bestowing life, but he cannot overcome nausea over humans." "God’s love for creatures is unconditional. It is agapic love for the states in which they find themselves." "Love can only flicker. It moves from place to place because it can live only between places. If it took an abode, it would die." Show Notes Miroslav Volf’s engagement with Nietzsche’s work Friedrich Nietzsche’s critique of Christianity as life-denying and his vision of the will to power Schopenhauer’s hedonism vs. Nietzsche’s anti-hedonism: “What is good? Everything that heightens the feeling of power.” The will to power as Nietzsche’s supreme value and “hyper-good” “The will to power is not a philosophy of life—it’s a philosophy of vitality.” Nietzsche’s agonism: the noble contest for superiority among equally powerful opponents “Every GOAT is a GOAT only for a time.” Amor fati: Nietzsche’s love of fate and affirmation of all existence Nietzsche’s ideal of desire without satisfaction: “desiring to desire” Dangers of epithumic (need-based, consuming) love “Love cannot abide. Its shelf life is shorter than a two-year-old’s toy... If it took an abode, it would die.” Nietzsche’s nausea at the weakness and smallness of humanity: “Nausea, nausea... alas, man recurs eternally.” Zarathustra’s conditional love: based on worthiness, wisdom, and power “Joy in tearing down has fully supplanted love’s delight in what is.” Nietzsche’s failure to love the unworthy: “His love fails to encompass the great majority of actually living h

Miroslav Volf confronts Schopenhauer’s pessimism and unquenchable thirst with a vision of love that affirms the world. “Unquenchable thirst makes for ceaseless pain. This befits our nature as objectification of the ceaseless and aimless will at the heart of reality. ... For Schopenhauer, the pleasure of satisfaction are the lights of fireflies in the night of life’s suffering. These four claims taken together make pain the primordial, universal, and unalterable state of human lives.” In the second installment of his 2025 Gifford Lectures, Miroslav Volf examines the 19th-century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer’s radical rejection of the world. Through Schopenhauer’s metaphysics of blind will and insatiable desire, Volf draws out the philosopher’s haunting pessimism and hatred for existence itself. But Schopenhauer’s rejection of the world—rooted in disappointed love—is not just a historical curiosity; Volf shows how our modern consumerist cravings mirror Schopenhauer’s vision of unquenchable thirst and fleeting satisfaction. In response, Volf offers a theological and philosophical critique grounded in three kinds of love—epithumic (appetitive), erotic (appreciative), and agapic (self-giving)—arguing that agape love must be central in our relationship to the world. “Everything is a means, but nothing satisfies,” Volf warns, unless we reorder our loves. This second lecture challenges listeners to reconsider what it means to live in and love a world full of suffering—without abandoning its goodness. Episode Highlights “Unquenchable thirst makes for ceaseless pain. This befits our nature as objectification of the ceaseless and aimless will at the heart of reality.” “Whether we love ice cream or sex or God, we are often merely seeking to slake our thirst.” “If we long for what we have, what we have never ceases to satisfy.” “A better version is available—for whatever reason, it is not good enough. And we discard it. This is micro-rejection of the world.” “Those who love agape refuse to act as if they were the midpoint of their world.” Helpful Links and Resources The World as Will and Representation by Arthur Schopenhauer Paradiso by Dante Alighieri Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables A Brief for the Defense by Jack Gilbert Show Notes Schopenhauer’s pessimism as rooted in disappointed love of the world God’s declaration in Genesis—“very good”—contrasted with Schopenhauer’s “nothing is good” Job’s suffering as a theological counterpoint to Schopenhauer’s metaphysical despair Human desire framed as unquenchable thirst: pain, boredom, and fleeting satisfaction Schopenhauer’s diagnosis: we swing endlessly between pain and boredom Three kinds of love introduced: epithumic (appetite), erotic (appreciation), agapic (affirmation) Schopenhauer’s exclusive emphasis on appetite—no place for appreciation or unconditional love Modern consumer culture mirrors Schopenhauer’s account: desiring to desire, never satisfied Fast fashion, disposability, and market-induced obsolescence as symptoms of world-negation “We long for what we have” vs. “we discard the world” Luther’s critique: “suck God’s blood”—epithumic relation to God Agape love: affirming the other, even when undeserving or diminished Erotic love: savoring the intrinsic worth of things, not just their utility The fleetingness of joy and compariso

Miroslav Volf on how to rightly love a radically ambivalent world. “The world, our planetary home, certainly needs to be changed, improved. But what it needs even more is to be rightly loved.” Miroslav Volf begins his 2025 Gifford Lectures at the University of Aberdeen with a provocative theological inquiry: What difference does belief in God make for our relationship to the world? Drawing deeply from Nietzsche’s “death of God,” Schopenhauer’s despair, and Hannah Arendt’s vision of amor mundi , Volf explores the ambivalence of modern life—its beauty and horror, its resonance and alienation. Can we truly love the world, even amidst its chaos and collapse? Can a belief in the God of Jesus Christ provide motivation to love—not as appetite or utility, but as radical, unconditional affirmation? Volf suggests that faith offers not a retreat from reality, but an anchor amid its disorder—a trust that enables us to hope, even when the world’s goodness seems impossible. This first lecture challenges us to consider the character of our relationship to the world, between atheism and theism, critique and love. Episode Highlights “The world, our planetary home, certainly needs to be changed, improved. But what it needs even more is to be rightly loved.” “Resonance seems both indispensable and insufficient. But what should supplement it? What should underpin it?” “Our love for that lived world is what these lectures are about.” “We can reject and hate one form of the world because we love the world as such.” “Though God is fully alive… we often find the same God asleep when our boats are about to capsize.” Helpful Links and References Resonance by Hartmut Rosa The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt This Life by Martin Hägglund The Home of God by Miroslav Volf and Ryan McAnnally-Linz The City of God by Augustine Divine Comedy by Dante Show Notes Paul Nimmo introduces the Gifford Lectures and Miroslav Volf’s theme Volf begins with gratitude and scope: belief in God and our world Introduces Nietzsche's “death of God” as cultural metaphor Frames plausibility vs. desirability of God's existence Introduces Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance Problem: resonance is not enough; what underpins motivation to care? Introduces amor mundi as thematic direction of the lectures Contrasts Marx’s atheism and human liberation with Nietzsche’s nihilism Analyzes Dante and Beatrice in Hägglund’s This Life Distinguishes between “world” and “form of the world” Uses cruise ship metaphor to critique modern life’s ambivalence Discusses Augustine, Hannah Arendt, and The Home of God Reflections on divine providence and theodicy Biblical images: flood, exile, and the sleeping God Ends with preview of next lectures on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche Let me know if you'd like episode-specific artwork prompts, promotional copy for social media, or a transcript excerpt formatted for publication. Production Notes This podcast featured Miroslav Volf Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa Hosted by Evan Rosa Production Assistance by Taylor Craig and Macie Bridge A Production of the Yale Center for

What if our relentless drive to be better than others is quietly breaking us? Miroslav Volf unpacks the core themes of his 2025 book, The Cost of Ambition: How Striving to Be Better Than Others Makes Us Worse . In this book, Volf offers a penetrating critique of comparison culture, diagnosing the hidden moral and spiritual wounds caused by competition and superiority. Drawing on Scripture, theology, philosophy, literature, and our culture’s obsession with competition and superiority, Volf challenges our assumptions about ambition and identity—and presents a deeply humanizing vision of life rooted not in being “the best,” but in receiving ourselves as creatures made and loved by God. From Milton’s depiction of Satan to Jesus’ descent in Philippians 2, from the architectural rivalry of ancient Byzantium to modern Olympic anxieties, Volf invites us to imagine a new foundation for personal and social flourishing: a life free from striving, rooted in love and grace. Highlights “The key here is for us to come to appreciate, affirm, and—importantly—love ourselves. Love ourselves unconditionally.” “Striving for superiority devalues everything we have, if it doesn’t contribute to us being better than someone else.” “The inverse of striving for superiority is internal plague by inferiority.” “In Jesus, we see that God’s glory is not to dominate but to lift up what is low.” “We constantly compare to feel good about ourselves, and end up unsure of who we are.” “We have been given to ourselves by God—our very existence is a gift, not a merit.” Helpful Links and Resources Visit faith.yale.edu/ambition to get a 40-page PDF Discussion Guide and Full Access to 7 videos The Cost of Ambition by Miroslav Volf (Baker Academic, May 2025) Philippians 2:5–11 (NIV) – Christ’s Humility and Exaltation – BibleGateway Romans 12:10 – “Outdo one another in showing honor” – BibleHub Paradise Lost by John Milton – Project Gutenberg Paradise Regained by John Milton – Project Gutenberg Show Notes Opening Reflections on Competition The conversation begins with Volf recalling a talk he gave at the Global Congress on Christianity & Sports. He uses athletic competition—highlighting Lionel Messi—as a lens for questioning the moral value of striving to be better than others. “Sure, competition pulls people up—but it also familiarizes us with inferiority.” “We compare ourselves to feel good… but end up feeling worse.” Introduces the story of Justinian and Hagia Sophia: “Oh Solomon, I have outdone you.” Rivalry, Power, and Insecurity Shares the backstory of Juliana’s competing church and the gold-ceiling arms race with Justinian. “Religious architecture became a battlefield of status.” Draws insight from these historic rivalries as examples of how ambition pervades religious life—not just secular. Modern Parallels: Yale Students’s & the Rat Race Volf notes how even Yale undergrads—once top of their class—feel insecure in comparison to peers. “They arrive and suddenly their worth plummets. That’s insane.” The performance-driven culture makes stable identity nearly impossible. Biblical Illustration: Kierkegaard’s Lily Volf recounts Kierkegaard’s retelling of Jesus’s lily parable. A bird whispers to the little lily that

It’s easy to forget how utterly scandalous the concepts of grace and forgiveness are. Grace is an absolutely unmerited, undeserved benevolence. Forgiveness is an intentional miscarriage of retributive justice, ignoring of the wrong by a wrongdoer. In Miroslav Volf’s understanding, forgiveness “decouples the deed from the doer.” Today’s episode features some highlights from Miroslav’s personal reflections about each chapter of his book Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace , including his thoughts about one of the most painful moments in his family’s history, the death of his 5-year-old brother Daniel when Miroslav was just a small boy. Free of Charge was published in 2006, and we just released a 10-video curriculum series through faith.yale.edu/free-of-charge . It also includes a 48-page discussion guide with new material to help facilitate not just deeper reflection about giving and forgiving, but a viable, livable path toward these core Christian practices. This episode was made possible in part by the generous support of the Tyndale Foundation. Visit tyndale.foundation to learn more. This series is free for Yale Center for Faith & Culture email subscribers. So head over to faith.yale.edu/free-of-charge to sign up today. Production Notes This podcast featured Miroslav Volf Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa Hosted by Evan Rosa Production Assistance by Macie Bridge, Alexa Rollow, Zoë Halaban, Kacie Barrett, and Emily Brookfield A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

Has modern humanity lost its connection to the world outside our heads? And can our experience of art and poetry help train us for a more elevated resonance with the cosmos? In today’s episode, theologian Miroslav Volf interviews philosopher Charles Taylor about his latest book, Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment . In it he turns to poetry to help articulate the human experience of the cosmos we’re a part of. Together they discuss the modern Enlightenment view of our relation to the world and its shortcomings; modern disenchantment and the prospects of reenchantment through art and poetry; Annie Dillard and the readiness to experience the world and what it’s always offering; how to hold the horrors of natural life with the transcendent joys; Charles recites some of William Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” and Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “The Windhover”; how to become fully arrested by beauty; and the value we find in human experience of the world. Production Notes This podcast featured Charles Taylor and Miroslav Volf Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa Hosted by Evan Rosa Production Assistance by Emily Brookfield, Alexa Rollow, Kacie Barrett, and Zoë Halaban A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

On June 3,2024, Jürgen Moltmann died. He was one of the greatest theologians of our time. He was 98 years old. In this episode, Miroslav Volf eulogizes and remembers his mentor and friend. We then share a previously released conversation between Miroslav Volf and Jürgen Moltmann. This episode first aired in April 2021—and it includes Moltmann’s conviction that “without living theologically, there can be no theology”; it explores the meaning of joy and its connection to anxiety, fear, wrath, hope, and love; and Professor Moltmann shares about the circumstances in which he came to faith—as a 16-year-old drafted into World War II by the German Army, enduring the bombardment of his hometown of Hamburg, and being held for 3 years in a Scottish prison camp, where he read with new eyes the cry of dereliction from Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This cry would lay a foundation that led to his most influential book, The Crucified God . Moltmann explains the centrality of Christ, the human face of God, for not just his theological vision, but his personal faith—which is a lived theology. Ryan McAnnally-Linz introduces the episode by celebrating Jürgen Moltmann's 95th birthday and reflecting on his lasting theological influence. Show Notes Happy 95th Birthday, Jürgen Moltmann! Find the places of deepest human concern, and shine the light of the Gospel there. “Without living theologically, there can be no theology." Jürgen Moltmann’s Theology of Joy (1972) — “How can I sing the Lord’s song in an alien land?" Joy today: Singing the Lord’s song in the broad place of his presence "Hope is anticipated joy, as anxiety is anticipated terror." "How does one find the way to joy from within anxiety and terror?" Seeing the face of God as an awakened hope Jesus Christ as the human face of God: “Without Jesus Christ, I would not believe in God." God is present in the midst of suffering Discovering and being discovered by God Moltmann’s story of being drafted to the Germany army at 16 years old (1943) In a prison camp in Scotland, Moltmann read the Gospel of Mark and found hope when there was no expectation. The Crucified God, the cry of dereliction, and the cry of jubilation Contrasting joy with American optimism and the pursuit of happiness Christianity as a unique religion of joy, in virtue of the resurrection of Christ Joy versus fun—“You can experience joy only with your whole heart, your whole soul, and all your energies." "You cannot make yourself joyful… something unexpected must happen." Love and joy "The intention of love is the happiness of the beloved." "We are not loved because we are beautiful… we are beautiful because we are loved." Joy and gratitude Love comes as a gift and surprise, and therefore leads to joy. Blessed, therefore grateful—receiving the gift as gift “Anticipated joy is the best joy.” The Passion of God as the foundation of joy Passionate God of the Hebrew Bible or Absolute God of Greek Metaphysics? An apathetic God makes apathetic people; the compassion of God makes compassionate people A Feeling God or an Apathetic God? God’s participation in suffering and joy “God participates in the joy of his creation." Luke 15: “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just…" Lost coin, lost sheep, prodigal son... The wrath of God is God’s wounded love “My wrath is only for a moment, and my grace is everlasting." "Joy, in the end, wins." Watch a video of this interview here . Production Notes This podcast featured t

Help the Yale Center for Faith & Culture meet a $10,000 matching challenge for podcast production; visit faith.yale.edu/give to donate today. A special Advent bonus episode on hope. Theologian Miroslav Volf reflects on "Hope is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickenson, comments on the dark hope of Martin Luther & the Apostle Paul, and how hope and endurance are intrinsically connected in Christian spirituality. Show Notes Evan Rosa & Macie Bridge reflect on the theme of the first week of Advent: “Hope” “Hope is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul / And sings the tune without the words / And never stops at all / And sweetest in the Gale is heard / And soar must be the storm / That could abash the little bird / That kept so many warm / I've heard it in the chillest land / And on the strangest sea / And yet never an extremity, / It asked a crumb of me” – Emily Dickenson “In hope, a future good, which isn't yet, somehow already is” Luther – "just as love transforms the lover into the beloved, so hope changes the one who hopes into what is hoped for." The present is pregnant with the future But hope does not come from what is happening in the present, it is something entirely new Hope lives apart from reason Hope and God belong together “The God who creates out of nothing, the God who makes the dead alive, that God justifies hope that is otherwise unreasonable” “Genuine hope remains alive when there is no good reason to expect something positive in the future." Hope transfers a person “into the unknown, the hidden, and the dark shadow, so that he does not even know what he hopes for.” Martin Luther, Luther’s Works , 25:364 "Hope is open to the difference between how we imagined fulfillment and how it arrived, openness even to recognize in the actual fulfillment what we in fact have wanted all along." "We are most in need of hope in threatening situations which we cannot control; but it is in those same situations that it is most difficult for us not to lose hope. That is where patience and endurance come in." "Hope needs endurance and endurance needs hope. Or: Genuine endurance is marked by hope; and genuine hope is marked by endurance." Hope is for no-exit situations. Production Notes This podcast featured Miroslav Volf Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa Hosted by Evan Rosa Production Assistance by Macie Bridge A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

As you listen today, would you consider helping the Yale Center for Faith & Culture meet a $10,000 matching challenge for 2024 podcast production? visit faith.yale.edu/give to donate today. "Christians are called to collaborate without compromise and to critique without dualism." (N.T. Wright, from today's episode) What better way to secure the greatness of your political state (or maybe political party) than to invoke the name of God as being uniquely supportive of your team? It brings a sickening and divisive new meaning to Romans 8:31—”If God is for us, who can be against us?” In this episode, revered New Testament scholar N.T. Wright joins Miroslav Volf to discuss Monotheism, Nationalism, & Violence. Together they reflect on the history and current realities of what happens when these three elements converge. The conversation was inspired by N.T. Wright's response to a short digital booklet by Miroslav Volf entitled Monotheism, Nationalism, & Violence: 25 Theses, which is available for download at faith.yale.edu. Click here to download Monotheism, Nationalism, & Violence: 25 Theses , a short digital booklet by Miroslav Volf, via faith.yale.edu. “In this essay, written in form of 25 interlocking theses, I approach the problem of religiously motivated or legitimized violence by exploring the relation between monotheism and nationalism. The first is allegedly the most violent of all forms of religion and the second one of the most violent forms of political arrangements, especially when it is cut loose from universal moral commitment and tied to some form of tribal identity (“exclusive nationalism”). I argue that monotheism is a universalist creed and that it is compatible only with inclusive nationalism, a nationalism that is a form of special relations framed by a universal moral code. When monotheism is aligned with exclusive nationalism—when it becomes a “political religion” aligned with exclusivist nationalism—monotheism betrays its universality, a feature which lies at its very core, and morphs into violence, generating and legitimizing henotheism: our god of our nation in contrast and competition to other nations with their gods. Alternatively, if monotheism keeps its universality while associated as political religion with exclusive nationalism it will tend to underwrite dreams of nationalist imperialism: our god and our nation as masters of the world.” Show Notes Help the Yale Center for Faith & Culture meet a $10,000 matching challenge for podcast production; visit faith.yale.edu/give to donate today. Download Miroslav Volf’s short digital booklet, Monotheism, Nationalism, & Violence: 25 Theses Volf introduces Monotheism, Nationalism, & Violence “The price monotheism always has to pay for its alliance with exclusive nationalism is the loss of its soul. When monotheism embraces exclusive nationalism, monotheism’s God morphs from the creator and lover of all people and all creatures into a selfish and violent idol of a particular nation.” Instrumentalizing God What is religion anyway? Brent Nongbri, Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept Martin Riesenbrot, A Promise of Salvation, A Theory of Religion Christians were regarded with suspicion, as atheists Wright: “…this leads some to say religion is itself a dangerous and violent thing because it leads to people saying I have this God and he's more important than your God or whatever. And all sorts of violence stem from that. Indeed, one could argue that the Enlightenment's redefinition radical redefinition of the word