My oldest son told me of a class he
decided to take. It had nothing to do with his major. He had simply heard it
was an awesome class. “History of the Beatles” was the class. When he first
told me, it sounded like a class people would take to get an easy grade. He got an A. He would tell me things about the Beatles. Sometimes, he would tell me things I did not know. Most of the time, especially if he said, "Did you know..." I would respond, "Michael, I did live it." It is rather humbling when you have your son studying history that you lived.
When I attended Asbury Seminary,
one professor in the department on preaching would have classes such as “cinema
and preaching.” You knew it would be some good theology, some good fun, and a
difficult grade. Few people figured out how he graded.
Rutgers has a class on
“Politicizing Beyoncé.” Skidmore College has a course on the Sociology of Miley
Cyrus. You might like a course in the art of walking or the physics of Stark
Trek. Time magazine called them bizarre classes. You can have classes on piercing
and tattooing as well. They might be just fine classes.
Then there
is the class offered by Yale, and another one offered by Yale Divinity School.
They are called, respectively, "Life Worth Living" and "Christ
and the Good Life." Christians have long pondered such things. Other religious
and philosophical traditions do as well, but such questions have long been part
of our heritage. John Wesley would give a long list of good things a person
might do, but then end with, “Are you happy?”
So, what makes life worth living?
Do we think much about it? In fact, dealing with this question used to be the
whole point of a liberal arts college education.
Do we ponder such a question very
much? These days, some observers say college courses tend to be more neutral
and descriptive. They might look at what a historical figure thought or did,
but without taking the next step of helping students think about values and
meaning for their own lives.
Matthew Croasmun, one of the course
teachers, explained in an interview for The Huffington Post, "The question
for the course for each tradition is, 'What are the truth claims this tradition
is making and, second, but more importantly, if those truth claims are true,
how would your life have to change?'"
"The courses ... address you as a
living being. There's a challenge to think of our money in terms of how it can
literally save lives. Once you think of your money that way, every decision you
make has an incredible weight to it. Whether or not I see a movie suddenly
becomes a moral choice."
Miroslav Volf and Ryan
McAnnally-Linz teach the Yale course on Life Worth Living. They think the
flourishing of our individual lives depends on our ability to ask and answer in
a provisional way such a question. They also think that living in such global
setting as we do, we need leaders and citizens who are capable of deliberating
about a life worth living.[1]
According
to one psychology article, here are some possible answers to the question of
what makes life worth living: (1) nothing; (2) religion; (3) happiness; (4)
love, work and play. The author thinks that evidence from psychology and
neuroscience supports the fourth answer.
He refers
to “despondent” philosophers Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and David Benatar as suggesting
that “nothing” makes life worth living. He describes them as nihilist. Life has
no intrinsic meaning. The author suggests, though, that most people find lots
of reason to value their lives and most people report they are reasonably
happy.
He refers
to religion as a potential source for making life worth living. He admits that
many surveys suggest this. To him, however, this is bogus. It may reassure
individuals, but he does not think any evidence could lead to supporting the
claims of one religion over another. I think this skeptical approach is common
and wrong. It lumps all religions into the same category. I think there are
ways to evaluate reasonably the claims of a religion. Of the issues all
religions must face, however, are the various claims within the religion by the
differing strands of tradition.
He
considers the possibility that happiness makes life worth living. He refers to
Sonja Lyumbomirsky, The How of Happiness.
His objection is that happiness is the result of a meaningful life, and not
what makes life worth living in itself.
His
personal decision is that what make life worth living are love, work, and play.
He makes the case in his book, The Brain
and the Meaning of Life. When we think about the importance of friendship,
vocation or productivity, and enjoyment in most of our lives, one can
understand why the author goes down this path.[2]
I do not
want to wrap up this article into a nice and neat package.
I like the way Volf puts it in his
book.
We can be truly ourselves and free if
God lives in us. This is what it means to be God's creature -- not to be a
self-made, self-standing individual over against God, but to exist from God and
through God. We are creatures precisely in that we live in God and God lives in
us. We are sinful creatures when we fail to recognize this and live as if we
were self-made, self-standing individuals. Being a new creature, redeemed from
sin, is in this regard similar to being a creature as God originally created us
to be. It is to live in Christ and to have Christ live in us. United with
Christ, we live in God, and God lives in us.[3]
I leave you with a simple question:
What makes your life worth living? Why does “it” make your life worth living? How
is your life different because of this belief?
[1] --Miroslav Volf, Ryan
McAnnally-Linz, "What makes life worth living? Take a moment to ask,"
The Huffington Post. Huffingtonpost.com. August 25, 2014. Retrieved January 4,
2016.
[2] --Paul Thagard, "What
makes life worth living?" Psychology Today, psychologytoday.com. February
25, 2010. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
[3] --Miroslav Volf, Free of
Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Zondervan, 2009),
149.
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