Desiring God

The Pursuit of Joy in Life and Ministry

This course, taught by John Piper at The Bethlehem Institute, is Christian Hedonism 101. Christian Hedonism is a philosophy of life built on the following five convictions:

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.
   
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 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.

Listen to this seminar online.