Toward this end, he changes the statement of the Westminster Confession of Faith on the chief end of man as being ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever’ to ‘glorify God by enjoying Him forever’.

Lest anyone question this focus on self, Piper attempts to show that ‘Christian Hedonism is not a distortion of historic Reformed catechisms of faith’ (p26). In Scripture, he claims to have ‘found the language of Hedonism everywhere’ saying that ‘the quest for pleasure was not even optional, but commanded: Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desire of your heart’ (Psalm 37:4) (p23). He even moves to Karl Barth: ‘The will for life is the will for joy, delight, happiness… a person who tries to debar himself from this joy is certainly not an obedient person’ (p209). He has directed them in the true way to it, and He tells them what they must become in order to be blessed and happy’ (p208). From a sermon of Jonathan Edwards, he quotes: ‘Jesus knew that all mankind were in the pursuit of happiness. Lewis to conclude: ‘It is not a bad thing to desire our own good’ (p20). Whatever means they employ, they all tend to this end’ (p208) He tries to use C.S. Piper accepts this as ‘a simple given in human nature’ (p19). Piper quotes Pascal to explain the motivation of all human behavior: ‘The will never takes the least step but to this object ’ (p19). Or to put it positively: The pursuit of pleasure is a necessary part of all worship and virtue.

To the extent that we try to abandon the pursuit of our own pleasure, we fail to honor God and love people.

The happiness we find in God reaches its consummation when it is shared with others in the manifold ways of love.

The deepest and most enduring happiness is found only in God.

Instead we should seek to intensify this longing and nourish it with whatever will provide the deepest and most enduring satisfaction.

We should never try to resist our longing to be happy as though it were a bad impulse.

The longing to be happy is a universal human experience, and it is good not sinful.He lists five convictions upon which this philosophy is built. As such he advocates a philosophy of Christian living that he calls Christian Hedonism (p28). Piper states that he wrote the book to persuade the reader that ‘the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever’ ( p18). It has spawned ministries, other books with the same message, web pages, and blogs while continuing to have wide influence in the evangelical church today. It was a best seller when released, has been updated repeatedly and remains popular to this day. John Piper’s famous book, Desiring God, was first published in 1986. Desiring God – Meditations of a Christian Hedonist

Desiring god website