Christian Hedonism

This past Sunday at my church there was an interesting discussion on Christian Hedonism. A term apparently coined or popularized by John Piper.

Hedonism certainly has a lot of baggage as a word. How often have people said that Los Angeles is a hedonistic town with it emphasis on entertainment, good looks and pleasure? For that matter, isn’t one of the biggest beefs the radical Islamists have with the West is that it is hedonistic?

Of course Piper doesn't mean that kind of hedonism! I haven’t read his work but others in our discussion have and I get the feeling what Piper is getting at is recapturing the sense that God wants us to enjoy life and to do so in a way that is not self-destructive.

One statement of the Christian faith puts it this way: the purpose of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

Interesting, no?

Humans have a tremendous capacity to enjoy and experience pleasure: the nature lover enraptured by the view of the Lower Falls of Yellowstone; the parent who crawls on hands and knees playing with a toddler; the chef who steals a taste of the concoction on the stove; good friends who can for endless hours talk about anything over coffee in an IHOP; the married couple who share love physically and emotionally; the scientist who at moment of discovery knows what was once unknown; the musician who is delirious with pleasure over hitting all the notes in a complex piece. Fill in what gives you the feeling of joy?

These pleasures are beyond rationality. You don’t think them into existence, they just are. That moment of WOW!! is pure enjoyment.

Thus, any religious faith of total pleasure denial makes no sense. Why would God instill in us this wonderful capacity and declare an ethic that requires its suppression?

Instead, we see a God who does declare in a moment of exultation, it is good, it is very good. Pure joy. Pure delight. Pure happiness. How could God deny us this when He doesn’t deny Himself?