Desiring God by John Piper
Week 12: Appendix 2 — How Jonathan Edwards Shaped Christian Hedonism
Read Appendix 2 of Desiring God (on Jonathan Edwards and the theological roots of Christian Hedonism). Key source: Edwards's 'The End for Which God Created the World.'
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Piper is not inventing something new — he is recovering something old, and this appendix traces his most important theological debts, especially to Jonathan Edwards.
Discussion Questions
8 questions1.Piper credits Jonathan Edwards as the primary theological architect behind Christian Hedonism. What was it about Edwards's thought — particularly his work on the end for which God created the world — that shaped Piper so profoundly?
2.Edwards argued that God's ultimate goal in creating the world was the overflow and communication of his own fullness — his glory — into created beings who would reflect it back to him in praise and enjoyment. How does this vision of creation underwrite everything Piper has argued in the book?
3.Piper also draws on C. S. Lewis and his concept of "joy" (Sehnsucht) — a deep, inconsolable longing that points beyond any earthly object. How does Lewis's autobiography *Surprised by Joy* illuminate what Piper means by the pursuit of joy in God?
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