What is Christian Hedonism?
Christian Hedonism belongs to Piper. It is his own phrase. In one of his books, Desiring God, he agreed with the English dictionary that hedonism should be defined as “a living for pleasure.” So, when he uses the phrase, Christian Hedonism, in his writings, his web site says it means, “I mean that pursuing the highest good will always result in our happiness. But all Christians believe this. Christian Hedonism says more, namely, that we should pursue happiness with all our might. The desire to be happy is a proper motive for every good deed, and if you abandon pursuit of your own joy you cannot please God.” Though Piper does not always add “in God” to his definition of Christian Hedonism, like he omitted it above, in other places Piper does add “in God,” to morph hedonism from an obviously pagan philosophy to one usable by Christians. So the pursuit of happiness with all our might is a pursuit of pleasure and happiness in God.
