Christian Hedonism
Posted by Vanity of Vanities! on January 6, 2009
In the spirit of my suggestion at the end of Thursday’s post, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite books. I recently finished reading Piper’s Desiring God. Whew! What a spiritual and intellectual workout! While I wholeheartedly recommend the book, I do so with caution. This is not a leisurely read! It took me over two months to finish the book… and I’m still not done! It’s one of those that left me feeling like, “Wow – that was awesome. But, I need to read it again.” I’m not going to completely read it again, but I do plan to go back and review what I marked during my initial reading. If you have any desire for all-surpassing joy, then I recommend this book. (The Bible first, then this book. 
)
As I rehash some of Piper’s major points, I will probably be sharing them on my blog. I don’t know how often or how much, but I’m pretty sure I will. It was hard NOT to blog about it as I read it, but I wanted to get a total picture before I started spouting off my own pseudo-theology when I had no idea what I was talking about. I also don’t really want to just parrot Piper, either. I will probably be highlighting some of his major points and giving my own thoughts about it all. I don’t know yet. Point being: I didn’t want to start talking about it without telling you that I may be starting to talk about it. 
In the meantime, I have a
Question for discussion: When you hear the term “Christian Hedonism,” what’s your gut reaction?
Rules for responding to the question:
- If you’ve already read the book, share your gut reaction the first time you heard the term.
- Do not Google what it means! Use your head and tell me what you think.
- Don’t give me Piper’s definition or his defense of his term. That hearkens back to rule #1!
katdish said
How am I ever supposed to get anything done when you keep recommending books? I love a new book like I used to love a brand new box of crayons. (Actually, I still love a brand new box of crayons.)
Vanity of Vanities! said
katdish – I will say that this book needs to be read fairly exclusively. You can’t just read it leisurely along with 15 other books (as per your custom!). It’s a workout!
Amanda said
I have no idea what the term means as defined by Piper.
A hedonist is a person who seeks pleasure, so I would imagine that a Christian hedonist is a Believer who seeks pleasure in and through Christ.
cohesivefaith said
christian hedonism? easy – the book, Prayer of Jabez – the worst so-called Christian book ever.
Vanity of Vanities! said
cohesive – I would say the Book of Mormon blows the Prayer of Jabez out of the water.
Shawn W said
“Christian Hedonism”? It feels like an oxymoron to me. The ideas of seeking your own pleasure, and serving others just don’t mix.
katdish said
Yeah, yeah…I know. I’m that way with Lewis and Tim Keller. Not only do I have to read exclusively, I usually have to read certain passages over and over again — book in hand and bible in lap.
cohesivefaith said
yeah, but does Book of Mormon count as even close to a Christian book?
Vanity of Vanities! said
It depends who you ask. If you ask the Mormons, they will say it’s Christian. Since they claim it as such, I say it’s the worst “Christian” book ever written. (Simply because it claims to be Christian, but it’s actually heretical and blasphemous.)
Sure, there are probably others that make the same claim and are equally blasphemous, but LDS has been so successful that I still think it wins as the worst because it’s so damaging.
Amanda said
I will be very offensive to a large group of religious people by stating that the Book of Mormon wasn’t written by a Christian, therefore I wouldn’t qualify it as a Christian book.
That said, I think another one of the worst “Christian” books ever written is anything bearing Joel Osteen’s name.
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[...] 6. Jesus, what if Judas repented before he actually betrayed you? Would you had to have sought another another ‘candidate’ for the traitor role? (yeah, I got this ‘what if’ in there!) [...]
cohesivefaith said
I did it.
What Piper Does NOT Mean « Vanity of Vanities! said
[...] | Tags: Book review, Christian Hedonism, Christianity, Desiring God, God, John Piper, Religion I recently blogged about John Piper’s book, Desiring God. I asked you what you thought of the term [...]