Page 34 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 24
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notes that a theology of the body would have world and all its wretchedness. Would this be
been foreign to Calvin. An anthropological blind the equivalent to becoming a Monas�c or a
spot no less. The dualism between realms here la�er-day Howard Hughes? However, Nietzsche
shows how li�le Calvin saw the person as a believed that suffering was a spur to self-devel-
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holis�c composite . We need a theology that opment, i.e. ‘what doesn’t kill me, makes me
is ‘encyclopedic’ more all-embracing than stronger’. Schopenhauer for his part pictured
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Calvin’s according to Has�ngs . existence in less dynamic terms. He believed
that life was an infinite treadmill. A boringly
Can pain ever be a posi�ve experience? Reflec- repe��ve sisyphusian experience where hu-
�ons of Philosophers, Polymaths, Psychother- mans are always dissa�sfied. The things we de-
apists and Literary Luminaries sire are either just out of reach, a frustra�ng
To this ques�on, most moderns would answer Tantalus’ like experience, or we get what we
with an unequivocal No! Western culture in the want but it is soon superseded by the ongoing
21 st Century is an age of radical individualism new items on our bucket list. For Schopen-
and undeniable hedonism. In the West we tend hauer, suffering defines our reality. We can ex-
to focus on what is in our personal self-interest. perience happiness, but it is flee�ng. The Book
We lean towards embracing pleasure and es- of Ecclesiastes, part of the Old Testament Wis-
chewing all pain. However, there are those who dom literature takes a similar Schopenhauerian
argue that pain can be beneficial. They side approach to ‘happiness’. The Qoheleth
with Keats and see this life as a ‘vale of soul (Teacher) says that true happiness is not to be
making’. A place to become stronger and more found ‘under the sun’, that is in this life. At best,
mature. Others doubt this to be the case, how- for Schopenhauer, happiness is merely a break
ever. We will dip into writers like Marin Luther, from one kind of pain while wai�ng for the
Goethe, Ka�a, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, imminent arrival of another. For him, life is an
Schopenhauer, Freud, Jung, and Ian Mc- exercise in feeling frustrated and trapped.
Gilchrist, to mine their wisdom. Schopenhauer proposes three ways to break
out of this miserable cycle:
Nietzsche (1884 -1900) and Schopenhauer • Asce�cism – living remote from society,
(1788 – 1860) isola�on, solitude.
Nietzsche is famous for sta�ng in Twilight of the
Idols, ‘Out of life’s school of war – what doesn’t • Aesthe�cs – enjoying the higher virtues
kill me – makes me stronger’. Wecanpickup of the arts, music, literature and nature.
here on an informa�ve comparison between • Absorp�on–engaginginac�vi�esthatreally
Nietzsche’s and Schopenhauer’s views on pain capture imagina�on and fully focus your
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and suffering, by Victoria Sus . Sus believes a�en�on.
that Nietzsche and Schopenhauer disagree
deeply on existence and the nature of human Like the idea of ‘Flow’ introduced to us by
suffering. However, there are some commona- Csikszentmihalyi.Schopenhauerwasinfluenced
li�es here. Schopenhauer 15 - the original pes- inhisthinkingbyBuddhism.Theideaofnirvana,
simist, thought that life inevitably brought with reaching a state where desires are wiped out.
it pain and suffering. And the best way to deal WecanalsoseetheinfluenceofStoicphilosophy
with this was by way of avoidance. Suffering here. Schopenhauer accepted Marcus Aurelius’
should be avoided because it traps us. advicethatweshouldbeindifferenttoeverything
Schopenhauer’s ideal was to retreat and be- except the virtues. To only try to influence those
come a recluse. To have nothing to do with the things we can and leave those things we cannot.
There are definite echoes of this Stoic approach
in the modern concept of ‘Radical Acceptance’.
12 Lapine, The Logic of the Body This concept has found its home in Dialec�cal
13 W Ross Has�ngs, Where do Broken Hearts Go? An
Integra�ve, Par�cipa�onal Theology of Grief. Behavior Therapy, and more popularly in the
14 Sus, The Collector ‘Nietzsche vs. Schopenhauer, and the wri�ngs of Stephen Covey. In DBT we are taught
Wil to Power’ July 21, 2025 to come to things we cannot change by fully
15 Miraslav Volf, Odium Mundi: ‘Schopenhauer on
Suffering...’ The Gifford Lectures 2025 acknowledging and embracing the painful or
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