The five convictions of Christian Hedonism

Although controversially named, Piper's philosophies are engaging and, so far, Biblical.

Here are the 5 convictions that are behind the tenets of Christian Hedonism:

1) The longing to be happy is a universal human experience, and it is good, not sinful.

2) We should never try to deny or resist our longing to be happy, as though it were a bad impulse. Instead, we should seek to intensify this longing and nourish it with whatever will provide the deepest and most enduring satisfaction.

3) The deepest and most enduring happiness is found only in God. Not from God, but in God.

4) The happiness we find in God reaches its consummation when it is shared with others in the manifold ways of love.

5) To the extent that we try to abandon the pursuit of our own pleasure, we fail to honor God and love people. Or, to put it positively: The pursuit of pleasure is a necessary part of all worship and virtue. That is...

The chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying Him forever.

-Desiring God, p.28

Beginning to read "Desiring God" by John Piper.

The Chief End

The chief end of man is to glorify God

BY

enjoying him forever

Piper's well-known Christian Hedonist creed, "God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him", pours out of every word of Desiring God from the first page. I am excited to see what God will show me through this work of theology and what practical implication it will have on my life. 

His first chapter touches on something that I believe most could relate to and I certainly did: the guilt of being motivated by pleasure instead of selflessness. Piper describes the feeling that if he did something good for others, it felt lessened if he realized that he was getting something out of it personally - This doesn't feel like being selfless. 

But perhaps, as Piper suggests when he quotes the Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis, being selfless isn't the end goal. The end goal is God's glory. 

And when pleasure is found in Him, this is the only motivator that can sustain us. 

More to come

-T