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.”

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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 comparison’s corrosion of value
Modern desire as invasive, subliminally shaped by market competition
Denigration of what is in favor of what could be—a pathology of dissatisfaction
Consumerism as massive “micro-rejection” of the world
Volf’s call to reorder our loves toward appreciation and unconditional affirmation
Theology and metaphysics reframe suffering not as a reason to curse the world, but to love it better
Preview of next lecture: Nietzsche, joy, and the affirmation of all existence

Production Notes

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