John Piper is well known for his view on the worship of God he has coined, “Christian Hedonism.” He states his view quite clearly as; “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” This seems rather uncontroversial, but Piper doesn’t leave it at that. He continues by stating that all of our actions are motivated by pain and pleasure. He points out that Blaise Pascal stated that, “all men seek happiness.” To top it all off Piper claims that the Bible doesn’t condemn people for seeking happiness, but for seeking it in the wrong places.
The great presumption of Pipers Christian Hedonism is that he equates the bi-conditional; if and only if we are most satisfied in God then He is most glorified in us, with the idea that we only are most satisfied in God when we seek pleasure from God. It is this presumption that I have issue with. For one thing scripture does warn about the emptiness of seeking pleasure and making happiness our ultimate goal. Ecclesiastes 2 describes Solomon’s seeking after all things including pleasure from worship, from riches, from women, from hard work and achievement but did not find meaning. He sought wisdom and knowledge but still did not find what he was looking for. In Ecclesiastes 12 he comes to his conclusion that we must obey God and deny ourselves to find meaning and hope. Note he does not say we should seek pleasure from God, he simply says to obey God.
Christ echoes this mentality in his life, death and resurrection. He denied Himself constantly, obeyed God, suffered and was shamed more than most, and sought not his own happiness but the happiness of others. Christ’s end goal was clearly not to be happy but to save those He created.
Philosophers have long noted this paradox of hedonism. By explicitly seeking pleasure we become miserable. The only way to find fulfillment and meaning in life is to have a worthy purpose, challenges to overcome, to make sacrifices and to learn from mistakes. This is what Piper misses. We do not seek God for the pleasure He brings us, that is our old nature speaking. Our old nature desires only happiness for its own sake. Our new nature in Christ desires the happiness of others and God for their own sake. Satisfaction in God is and was always meant to be a by-product of this pursuit. To make it the centerpiece of what it means to worship and glorified God then, is a serious mistake.
Other good critiques of “Christian Hedonism”:
http://www.thefaithfulword.org/againsthedonism.html
http://philosophicalorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2008/08/why-i-think-john-pipers-christian.html
A philosophical explanation of ethical hedonistic theories;
http://www.iep.utm.edu/hedonism/
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