The Approach of Holiness and the Approach of Hedonism
Holiness and happiness, purity and pleasure, benevolence and blessedness, advantage and vivaciousness, faithfulness and success, character and contentment: what do these seemingly contradictory ideas have in widespread? What do these concepts—typically pitted in opposition to one another as mutually unique—need to do with each other? Is that this some type of paradox?
There are some Wesleyan ideas that I’ll take with me wherever I am going, and one in all these is the concept that holiness is the way in which to happiness.
Consider it or not, the concept that the ethical life is the nice life dominates historical pondering. Holiness and happiness, specifically, are woven collectively in classical Christian thought. Augustine acknowledged that the pursuit of happiness reaches its finish in God, and Aquinas emphasised the happiness of the saints in his Summa Theologica. However the connection between holiness and happiness might be most clear within the theology of John Wesley—the founder, although maybe unwittingly, of Methodism.
I went to a seminary that was closely entrenched within the Anglican, Methodist, and Wesleyan traditions. For higher or worse, I realized rather a lot in regards to the life, ministry, and teachings of John Wesley whereas I used to be there. Although I don’t see eye-to-eye with Wesley on every part, there are some Wesleyan ideas that I’ll take with me wherever I am going, and one in all these is the concept that holiness is the way in which to happiness.
This classical perspective is sort of overseas to our trendy sensibilities. Within the up to date panorama, most of us have developed a detrimental view of conventional morals, classical virtues, and spiritual teachings on “proper and incorrect.” We are inclined to suppose that such issues oppose private creativity and curb self-expression, robbing us of delight, happiness, and life. In distinction to the Wesleyan path, many people are inclined to take the opposing path, which may be summed up right here as the way in which of hedonism—the way in which of licentiousness, immediate gratification, private indulgence, and bodily pleasure.
Isaac Brock: Good Information for Individuals Who Love Unhealthy Information
This well-traveled path is portrayed somewhat positively in a lot of our present artwork and media. The music and prose of the long-lasting indie rock band Modest Mouse serves as a superb instance. Modest Mouse has been round because the early ‘90s. They began writing and enjoying music throughout the heyday of the grunge period. Hailing from the good state of Washington and rising up within the shadows of Seattle, they didn’t earn the type of consideration and acclaim that neighboring bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam had earned.
In life, if I’m introduced with two various paths—one straightforward and one tough—why wouldn’t I select the straightforward one?
Modest Mouse is taken into account to be one of many first indie bands of the fashionable period. Often called true “highway warriors,” they didn’t achieve a ton of recognition till 2004, the 12 months they launched their most accessible album so far: the critically-acclaimed Good Information for Individuals Who Love Unhealthy Information. After enjoying reveals in small golf equipment and dive bars throughout the nation for greater than a decade, Modest Mouse had lastly made it.
Their lead singer and first songwriter is Isaac Brock, an open and self-designated atheist. He’s written a number of songs which are consultant of an atheistic perspective. A few of these songs operate as express critiques of religion and faith. As an illustration, on a observe entitled “Bukowski,” Brock refers to God as an “Indian giver,” a “management freak,” and even—in a roundabout manner—an “a**gap.”
Within the track “Ocean Breathes Salty,” which was one of many hit singles off of Good Information for Individuals Who Love Unhealthy Information, Brock expresses the prevailing hedonistic sentiments of the day, sentiments which are attribute of a youthful—and perhaps even juvenile—mindset. On the observe, Brock sings:
I hope heaven and hell are actually there,
However I wouldn’t maintain my breath.
You wasted life, why wouldn’t you waste demise?
You wasted life, why wouldn’t you waste demise?
On the finish of the track, Brock rewords these closing traces, proclaiming: “You wasted life, why wouldn’t you waste the afterlife?”
Brock is actually saying what many in our tradition would say: that the spiritual life is a wasted life. The consensus right now, at the least amongst younger folks, appears to be that to stay in response to classical conceptions of piety, of conventional morals and spiritual values, is to throw one’s life away.
As they are saying, “You solely stay as soon as!” “We need to have enjoyable!” “We need to take pleasure in this fleeting life as a lot as we are able to earlier than we die.” “What a waste of a life—to comply with the foundations, to make sacrifices for a God that will not even exist, to pursue advantage, to be disciplined, to keep away from extra and abstain from sure pleasures and indulgences, to take the tough path, the highway much less traveled.”
In life, if I’m introduced with two various paths—one straightforward and one tough—why wouldn’t I select the straightforward one? That’s a superb query! Perhaps the rationale why we shouldn’t select the straightforward path is as a result of it gained’t really take us the place we need to go. Perhaps the straightforward path will not be the trail to happiness. Perhaps it’s true that nothing good, rewarding, and really worthwhile, is straightforward.
Is the Non secular Life Actually a Wasted Life?
Primarily based on private expertise, I might push again somewhat exhausting on the notion that the ethical life or the spiritual life is a wasted life. I consider the precise reverse to be true, primarily based on first-hand expertise. I feel it’s essential to problem a few of these societal assumptions. It’s significantly essential if we genuinely care about folks.
Opposite to in style perception, it’s really the impious life that may be a wasted life.
I consider that one could make a really sturdy argument—primarily based primarily on shared human expertise—that, opposite to in style perception, it’s really the impious life that may be a wasted life. I feel we misinform ourselves; we misinform different folks. The world round us lies to us—and all of us are consuming it up! I’ve eaten it up! I’m nonetheless consuming it up! It’s such a human factor to do; it’s pure. It’s so easy and simple, nevertheless it’s additionally so flimsy and hole.
When folks say {that a} spiritual life or an ethical life is a wasted life, they typically have three historically prohibited behaviors in thoughts. Isaac Brock virtually actually had these three issues in thoughts when he wrote the lyrics to “Ocean Breathes Salty”—heavy drug use, extreme alcohol use, and informal intercourse.
However do this stuff actually make us happier and more healthy? Do they actually make us extra full? Are they good for {our relationships}, friendships, and marriages? Do they make us really feel higher about ourselves and result in private success? Do they make us really feel cherished and at peace?
Quite the opposite, don’t this stuff drain us (and others) of emotional, bodily, psychological, and religious well-being? Don’t these very issues damage and hamper us greater than they assist us? By and huge, doesn’t the presence of such habits trigger extra guilt and disgrace, extra despair and despair, extra numbness and vacancy, extra insecurity and stress, extra brokenness and bondage, extra angst and weak spot, extra laziness and impotence, than their absence does?
In the long term and for essentially the most half, do these behaviors not add to our discontentment somewhat than subtract from our discontentment? Don’t folks sometimes apply these habits for the very function of masking and avoiding their deep-seated points—points which are typically instantly tied to private ache and trauma—as a substitute of coping with them, which might probably lead to a greater life? We often don’t need to take into consideration this stuff, partly as a result of it doesn’t appear to be very… a lot… enjoyable….
The Approach of Happiness
I can’t reply these questions for different folks. I can’t reply them for you, however just for myself—and I feel I do know what the reply is… I feel I’ve come to know what the reply is, although generally I nonetheless don’t need to consider it—although generally, like a baby, I plug my ears, shake my head, and scream on the prime of my lungs with a view to keep away from the reality, that inconvenient fact that part of me—a really actual a part of me—doesn’t need to be true. “Evil… me, oh yeah, I do know…” Brock sings in “Bukowski”—maybe essentially the most self-aware factor that he sings all through your entire track, perhaps much more sincere than the title of the ultimate observe on the album: “The Good Occasions Are Killing Me.” In the event that they’re killing you, then are they actually good?
Wesley was proper: we had been made for happiness, and happiness can solely be present in our joyful Creator—the God of everlasting happiness, the God of Holy Love.
Thomas Oden, a theologian within the Methodist custom, wrote an 859-page systematic theology known as Traditional Christianity. On the finish of his part on the “Character of God,” he talks in regards to the doctrine of divine happiness, a dogma that we merely don’t hear sufficient about within the church right now—if we hear about it in any respect. God is eternally joyful; He’s eternally fulfilled and joyful. This God of happiness, this God of felicity and blessedness, desires us to be like him—not primarily for his personal sake, however for our sake! He desires us to be joyful. He desires us to share in his blessedness. He desires us to expertise “life and life abundantly.”
However this God of everlasting happiness can also be the God of holiness and righteousness. The God of eternal pleasure is the God of “Holy Love.” The holiness of God is an integral a part of the happiness of God. The righteousness of God instantly contributes to the joyfulness of God. In and thru God, we see that the holy life is the joyful life, and vice versa.
That is what John Wesley helped convey to my consideration as a younger seminary pupil, one thing that I now know to be true by means of expertise. Like most individuals, I’ve had my seasons of immorality—unholy seasons. However, once I look again on these seasons, I can’t assist however suppose that they had been all a waste! What did I achieve? Greater than that, what did I lose? These had been wasted seasons, wasted potential, wasted life. My waywardness robbed me of the that means, the sweetness, the enjoyment, the peace, and the success of the nice life. It prevented me from experiencing the blessedness of God. Wesley was proper: we had been made for happiness, and happiness can solely be present in our joyful Creator—the God of everlasting happiness, the God of Holy Love.