The Cost of Ambition: How Striving to Be Better Than Others Makes Us Worse

Summary

Many people believe that ambition, understood as striving to be better than others, improves us as individuals and advances society. But what if the opposite is true?

In The Cost of Ambition, world-renowned theologian and award-winning author Miroslav Volf argues that striving for superiority actually makes us worse.

Working his way backward in time, Volf explores what three influential thinkers—Søren Kierkegaard, John Milton, and the apostle Paul—say about the cost of ambition. He also explores what the teachings of Jesus and the stories in Genesis say on the matter. Volf explains that striving to be better than others, though widely accepted as part of modern life, devalues our achievements, things that surround us, and relationships because it makes them into mere means to an empty goal. He reveals ambition's negative consequences in all domains of life, showing that it is at odds with the key convictions of Christian faith.

After unpacking the toxicity of ambition, Volf uses contemporary examples to guide listeners to a better goal: striving for excellence.