Trinity Forum Conversations Discovering a Life Worth Living, with Miroslav Volf
Mar 31, 2026
Miroslav Volf, Yale theologian and author, explores what makes life worth living. He discusses teaching across traditions, differences between happiness and deep flourishing, forgiveness and repentance, living amid suffering, communal flourishing, and the treasure worth risking everything for. Short, reflective, and provocative.
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Teen Conversion Launched A Lifelong Vocation
- Miroslav Volf discovered his life question early after embracing faith at 16 and turned that existential curiosity into a lifelong vocation in theology.
- He grew up as a Pentecostal minister's son in Yugoslavia and felt both rebellion and attraction, which propelled him toward explaining faith to others.
Take Each Tradition Seriously In Pluralistic Teaching
- Teach or learn major life traditions by taking each tradition seriously and imaginatively inhabiting its truth claims for a period.
- Volf uses this pluralistic classroom method at Yale to help students honestly engage different conceptions of the good life.
Disruption Prompts Serious Search For Meaning
- People who face severe disruption (e.g., prisoners, refugees) often engage existential questions more earnestly because smooth lives distract from them.
- Volf notes Danbury inmates and struggling Yale students both display a readiness to confront life's meaning.
