Book Review: The Gospel of Happiness
Introduction
I found out about this book from twitter, when James K.A. Smith mentioned anticipating it's release. I had never heard of the author before, but he's an ethics professor with his PhD from Notre Dame.
The aim of the book is stated on page 18:
In this book, I highlight the many ways in which positive psychology and Christian practice overlap. I point out empirical findings in positive psychology that point to the wisdom of many Christian practices and teachings. I also provide practical suggestions on how to become happier in everyday life and how to deepen Christian practice based on contemporary psychological insights. All of this points us toward deeper fulfillment in this life, and in the life to come. This is why I titled this book The Gospel of Happiness – because this is good news, very good news indeed (18).The argument is fairly obvious from chapter to chapter. The chapter titles are:
- The Ways to Happiness
- The Way of Faith, Hope, and Love
- The Way of Prayer
- The Way of Gratitude
- The Way of Forgiveness
- The Way of Virtue
- The Way of Willpower
Dr. Kaczor looks at the relevant psychological research concerning each topic as well the Biblical and historical teachings of Christianity and shows their coherence and overlap. After he makes these comparisons he makes recommendations for personal practice.
Adler's Moral Axiom
As far as I can tell, there are three major problems in ethical thinking today:
- Disconnecting ethics from happiness and therefore thinking that personal well-being and pleasure have nothing to do with ethics.
- Hedonism: The idea that right and wrong is only a matter of what leads to the highest personal pleasure. In social ethics, this means allowing people to do whatever they think/feel will make them feel the best. We might call this unscientific utilitarianism (because it isn’t based upon actual knowledge of what is good for the individual or collective human organism.
- The is/ought problem: That since knowledge is all descriptive, no understanding of what is can lead to a conclusion about what one ought to do.
Below are the paragraphs where he introduces the axiom in his book, 10 Philosophical Mistakes:
Reflections on Abraham
[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“1126”]
Abraham and Melchizedek in the Loggia di Raffaello in Vatican City.[/caption]
What is a father?
Genesis presents Abraham as being the father of many nations.The whole Bible presents the Israelites as the ‘sons of Abraham’ on multiple occasions.
The New Testament, in particular, presents anybody with appropriate faith in God (whatever that means…but usually faith in Christ) as a child of Abraham.
This is significant for many reasons, not the least of which is that the father in the Bible is a figure for the accumulated wisdom of the past in a way that is indicative of a divine voice:[1]