When the world is not enoughtranslated

"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" (Mark 8:36)

Petros D. Damianos, Dr. Philosophy - NTUA Teaching Staff

Perhaps few phrases of the Gospel summarize the question of human existence as completely as this one. What is profit after all? What is loss? And what is that good, against which even "the whole world" may prove insignificant?

Christ does not deny the value of the world or condemn human creativity, work, joy or material goods. But it sets up a hierarchy. There is something in man that is worth more than anything he can acquire. The world may be gained and yet the man may perish. Power, wealth, knowledge, and recognition can increase while impoverishing what Scripture calls the "soul": the innermost man, his freedom, his relationship with God, and ultimately his very destiny.

This thought does not appear for the first time in human history with Christianity. Long before the Gospel, people and cultures had sensed that visible life might not exhaust the meaning of existence. Plato spoke…