Happiness

How Does Christianity Address Our Pursuit of Joy

You’re all going to die. Everyone here will die. Everyone you know will die.

An essay on happiness, we’re off to a good start.

But death bears a considerable amount of weight on any discussion of happiness. Death creeps into any vision of happiness like darkness falling as the sun sets. Death reminds us of our impermanence. And any reasonable, robust pursuit of happiness must have staying power. It must have permanence. No one seriously believes that the fleeting joy of trivial pursuits establishes lasting happiness. No one here really thinks the chuckle we get from snark on Twitter has any lasting value. It’s a momentary diversion not any true pursuit of happiness.

Happiness has to have some ability to last. Because if not, then we’re talking about momentary, fleeting dalliances that disappear as quickly as the time bound concept of ‘now.’ Death lays waste to it all. Death makes it all impermanent.

And since that’s true, common conceptions of happiness don’t satisfy. No singular approach to pursuing happiness brings satisfaction. These conclusions are not my own, they are drawn from the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is the most philosophical book in the Bible and seeks to explain meaning and meaninglessness in a world ‘under the sun’ a world that has death in it and lives that only last for a breath. It reveals man’s restlessness that lives side by side with the reality that there’s nothing new under the sun. Technology may improve, but the nature of man is remarkably consistent.

Ecclesiastes is written by a Solomonic figure, ‘the preacher’, who examines common approaches to happiness and meaning in a temporary world. He positions himself as a king who gained great wealth, power, wisdom, and pleasure, yet found these things lacking.

The preacher examines materialism, pleasure, greatness, work, and wisdom and whether they can solve the existential challenge of meaning in a world under the sun. In short, they fail the preacher. But do they fail us today? The preacher says they do. And I’m hard pressed to find any evidence that alternative means of pursuing happiness satisfy the necessary condition of permanence to happiness.

It is not enough to knock down other conceptions of happiness though. Ecclesiastes accomplishes that well by constantly showing the impermanence of temporal approaches to happiness. But what about a positive vision of happiness? Happiness is a tricky word. When the founders enshrined the phrase ‘pursuit of happiness’ into the Declaration of Independence, they intended something like the free exercise of reason, conscience, and labor in the quest for fulfillment, virtue, and the joy that results from that endeavor. Our modern conception of happiness is more akin to base, fleeting pleasure.

Christianity doesn’t offer the happiness we see in the fleeting delights of modernity. It does rhyme with the Founding Fathers and Aristotelian’s focus on fulfilling the human purpose in a virtuous life. But Christianity claims the end of that pursuit isn’t reason, civic virtue, communal service, education, good laws, or mutually profitable commerce. Christianity claims the purpose of humanity is to rightly worship the God who made us. And what comes with this faith is not happiness per se, but rather peace, blessedness, and contentment. The experience of happiness in the Christian life waxes and wanes, but the condition of being blessed is steady, because the One doing the blessing is omnipotent and unchanging.

From a Christian perspective, the pursuit of happiness must meet certain conditions. First, permanence. The peace that comes through faith in Christ endures through suffering, persists beyond the grave, produces joy in Him, and supplies hope for this life and the next.

The central differentiating claim of Christianity is that its happiness—its joy, contentment, and peace—is both temporal and eternal.

We begin with the Preacher and his attack on alternative methods of pursuing happiness.

The Materialist

“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes?...[15] As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. [16] This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? (ESV)

–Ecclesiastes 5:10–11, 15-16

Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems.–The Notorious B.I.G

Money. Mammon. Lucre. While there are not many robust philosophical or theological arguments for equating the gain of material wealth with true, permanent happiness, it’s undeniable that large sections of Western Culture ™ believe this. The pursuit of money above all else is found in our music, our movies, our books, and even corrupt parts of our religion.

Ayn Rand might have come the closest to giving a philosophical argument for the pursuit of money as satisfying when she said

“So you think that money is the root of all evil? To love money is to know and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men. Money demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it.”

Rand’s argument is that money reveals the best in us, it takes virtue to earn money, but most people pursuing material ends don’t go that deep. They think money is an end in itself, not as a sign of productive virtue. And when asked, how much is enough? The answer is ‘More.’

And while I am declaring, ex nihlo, that the pursuit of money is the least convincing vision of happiness, 59% of Americans believe that money can buy happiness. So my assessment of what people find compelling is not in line with the Zeitgeist. Money as an answer to the pursuit of happiness, must be dealt with. Death does this. We the leave the earth as we entered it, with nothing.

Death defangs Rand’s arguments and the simple materialists as well. Death is the means of transferring wealth via inheritance, which means inheriting someone else’s ‘virtue’ that can easily be squandered. Rand knew this, she despised the moochers and the looters. Yet amassing great wealth creates moochers and looters. Secondly, even if money is somehow an outward representation of virtue, it ceases being the property of anyone the moment they die. In other words, it’s a temporary virtue that doesn’t go with you. Money cannot keep you alive indefinitely, Peter Thiel’s desire for transhumanism aside, we have not found the holy grail. (And even if consciousness transfer were possible, is what goes into a digital or mechanical repository actually you? We have some real ship of Theseus problems here) Death is coming for Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jack Ma, and whoever else comes to mind. And the moment it does, that money is no longer theirs. There is no permanent money to be found. The preacher knew this;

“[18] I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, [19] and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity”. –Ecclesiastes 2:18–19

There is the further problem that the accumulation of wealth leads to the desire for more wealth. People adapt to new levels of income incredibly quickly, the novelty wears off.

For the simpler materialist, if money means happiness, why are there such diminishing returns of wealth over a certain amount? Emotional well-being plateaus around $75,000 per year (in 2008 dollars). Average happiness remains stagnant as GDP increases. This is known as the Easterlin Paradox. Tyler Cowen contends that this isn’t an issue of happiness, but rather that people rescale their expectations upon reaching a new income level. In other words, people’s zero point has changed. But if happiness continually requires rescaling our wants and desires, that supports the notion of restlessness in human beings. Rescaling explains the mechanism of longing, not it’s resolution.

The total pursuit of money will not make you happy. It doesn’t last past your life and the happiness it does bring is fleeting. Worse, the desire for money begets a desire for still more money.

The Hedonist

“I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. [2] I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” [3] I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. [4] I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. [5] I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. [6] I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. [7] I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. [8] I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.

[9] So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. [10] And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. [11] Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”–Ecclesiastes 2:1–11

“An ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure is the formula.”–C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, The Demon’s strategy for stealing a person’s soul.

Pleasure as the highest good. This perspective has been with human beings for a long time. There’s a base sort of hedonist, the person who wants to drink as much, sleep with as many, eat as much, do the most amount of drugs in order to pursue pleasure. This fails the permanence test. All of these activities are limited and the pleasure that comes with them is fleeting. Worse, most of these activities will damage your health or emotional well-being. To take one example, promiscuity is correlated to poor mental health outcomes in study after study. Casual sex was negatively associated with well being, regardless of gender in one study. In Sweden, among female respondents, having multiple sex partners was significantly associated with high depression, high anxiety, and poor mental health. In adolescent girls in the United States, sadness, suicidal ideation, and hopelessness were correlated with promiscuous activity. We could do the same with long term drug use and over-eating, I trust it’s axiomatic that pursuing those things over everything else is a net negative in happiness. These things won’t create fulfillment in people, how many Saturday mornings arrive with the thought ‘what did I do last night’ with about a thousand regrets. The echoes the preacher’s conclusion that pleasure is vanity because it does not last and thereby creates despair.

Yet, bodily pleasure is not the only pleasure there is. Philosophy has grappled with hedonism from its beginnings. And my temptation is to knock people like J.S. Mill for expanding the concept of pleasure to include transcendent virtues, but the preacher counts such things under the general category of pleasure as well. So Mill gets a pass.

The hedonists are onto something, delighting in something is of some value. The preacher’s problem is that none of it lasts because we die and even transcendent pleasure is fleeting. And worse, pleasure can be misused to distract us from the central problem of human existence, death is coming. “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind,and the living will lay it to heart.”– Ecclesiastes 7:2

The hedonic treadmill stands as strong evidence the preacher is onto something. Like the argument against the materialists, hedonists have to grapple with the reality that people adapt to new pleasures and then have to seek more as previous pleasures fade. This suggests that we need to have a source of pleasure that is permanent and forever able to satisfy our innate desires for novelty. This is true regardless of whether the pleasure is high or low.

Simple pleasure can’t do that–a life dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure above all else doesn’t satisfy.

The Vocationalist

[7] Again, I saw vanity under the sun: [8] one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.–Ecclesiastes 4:7–8

“Workism is among the most potent new religions in America.” “Workism Is Making Americans Miserable,” The Atlantic, February 24, 2019.

Work as happiness, work as meaning; the pop version sounds something like. ‘Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life!” The humble vocationalist may recognize that transcendent work isn’t on the table, but at least they can dedicate their lives to something they love. Yet, work as the sole source of happiness comes with drawbacks. It demands more and more of one’s time. Work is a cruel mistress. It will take your best years, rob you of human relationships, and only give you a paycheck in return. It leads to impaired health and more difficult family relationships. This is the moment to throw the standard cliche at you, no one on their death bed ever said I wish I spent more time at the office. And yet, that cliche is true. Bronnie Ware worked for years in palliative care and said every male patient she nursed told her ‘I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.’ The opportunity cost as it relates to family, spouses, and experiences was not worth it.

The Achiever

[5] For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. [6] Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun. Ecclesiastes 9:5–6

“Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me?I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, ‘Hey man, this is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life.’ Me, I think, God, it’s got to be more than this. I mean, this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be.” “What’s the Answer? I wish I knew. I wish I knew.–Tom Brady, Interview with Steve Kroft, 2005.

So then, what about true greatness? If dedication to a career over all else fails, will greatness succeed?

‘It’s better to burn out than to fade away’ so said Kurt Cobain, quoting Neil Young, about wanting to end having achieved musical greatness rather than to compromise that greatness. Making a generational mark holds out appeal as a source of happiness. It promises a type of permanence, since true greatness outlasts the life of any individual human being. Alexander the Great left cities bearing his name, Steve Jobs transformed the way the world communicates and processes knowledge. Shakespeare wrote great works that continue to expand the minds of young students to this day. Surely this then stands as a source of happiness–work that matters and work that lasts. Humans derive happiness from a job well done and can rest in that their work will go on past their own lives.

Except only a monumentally tiny number of people can achieve that level of greatness, and even the ones who do, time will erase their works eventually.

One might say, well what about Alexander? What about true greatness that has come down to us? It is true their actions are still talked about. But what were any of these people like? What did they find funny? What did they talk about? Think about ? Dream about? We don’t know, even for those figures who have lots of extant works, do any of us really know them? The answer is of course no. Beyond that, they are gone. They don’t know their own legacy because they aren’t alive to see it. Greatness lasts for the world, but not the individual pursuing happiness via greatness.

Even greatness achieved in one’s own lifetime doesn’t satisfy. Tom Brady, the greatest American footballer to ever play said after his third championship, is this it? Worse, the football memory that sticks with him longer than any other is his loss against the Philadelphia Eagles, not his seven championships. Anyone who reaches the top of their profession, or achieves greatness, there remains a desire to do more. We are not satisfied. The happiness derived is not permanent.

The Aristotelian

“So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. [13] Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. [14] The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. [15] Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. [16] For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! [17] So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.”–Ecclesiastes 2:12–17

“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know”–Ernest Hemingway

If wealth, work, and worthiness fail, what about wisdom? Does happiness lie in virtue rather than indulgence of achievement? I have to admit, living wisely is compelling and of value. The preacher agrees, he declares that wisdom is better than folly. Being Socrates is better than being Mr. Beast. If anyone has given wisdom it’s best case, it’s Aristotle.

Aristotle puts forward his vision of living wisely in Nicomachean Ethics. He recognizes many of the same arguments for happiness that the preacher does and cites them as part of, but not the entirety of happiness.

“For to some people happiness seems to be a virtue; to others prudence; to others some sort of wisdom; to others again it seems to be these, or one of these, involving pleasure or requiring it to be added; others add in external prosperity…it is reasonable for each group not to be completely wrong, but to be correct on one point at least”–Nicomachean Ethics, Book 1, Chapter 8, § 6

But Aristotle goes further, to eudaimonia, the concept that happiness is an ongoing way of living in light of true virtue. It’s a pattern observed over a complete life. “One swallow does not make a spring…nor one day or a short time make us blessed and happy.” Happiness must have permanence. Human function and flourishing finds its good in the activity of the soul in accord with virtue, and since humans fulfill their purpose, find happiness in doing so. For Aristotle, happiness is found in doing what self-evidently corresponds with virtue because it is excellent in itself.

But death stands in Aristotle’s way. His answer is something like we cannot escape mortality, but we can participate in the eternal through contemplation. But if we’re dead, what does that matter? Does it last? We’re in religious territory now, the domain of Ecclesiastes.

The Christian

[11] He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. [12] I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; [13] also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. Ecclesiastes 3:11–13

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”–Augustine

The very knowledge that this life ends robs us of joy, even in this life. Yet, there’s wisdom in being mindful of death. The preacher endlessly reminds us that life is a breath, here and it’s gone. We can’t keep it, we can’t make it come, we can’t hold on to it, the good moments we get, we cannot make them last forever. But existence is better than non-existence, better a live dog than a dead lion as the preacher says, or better a miserable man than a happy pig, to paraphrase Mill. The wise thing to do, even if you reject my Christian perspective, is to take life as it comes, enjoy the parts you can, and avoid clinging too hard to the things that don’t last. It’s better to be wise than foolish, but it doesn’t matter because both die. There’s nothing better than for a man to enjoy his toil, life, and family, but none of it will last. Recognize the limited reality of human existence, and be grateful for the opportunity to experience life.

The preacher points us to the reality that life is a gift and in the fullness of scripture, Christianity reveals the Giver. There’s more to be found. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Aristotle echoes the Bible when he claims that happiness results from humanity performing its highest function, the difference is the Bible claims that highest function is to glorify God by worshipping him, and in so doing, we find joy and happiness, that is permanent because it relies on God who is infinite and can satisfy our restlessness, and because it extends into eternity. And here’s the real value add, Christianity offers a source of peace that has permanence in this life and the next.

To put it nakedly, every other pursuit of happiness listed in this essay has no comfort to offer a parent who just buried their child. Money, success, pleasure, achievement, wisdom, all these things flail at the graveside of a loved one. Christianity gives hope in suffering, in the belief that even death serves a greater, divine purpose that we cannot see fully.

The full picture of Christian happiness and contentment hinges on individuals walking between two worlds, the already and the not yet. The Apostle Peter, famously, hopped out of a boat to walk towards Christ as he was walking on the waves. Peter falters, he sinks, and he cries out for help. Christ lifts him up and walks with him back to the boat. This is a picture of the Christian life. Sometimes we joyfully, confidently walk towards our Lord, sometimes we completely fail and suffer. In either case, our eyes are fixed on our singular hope and with that comes peace in any storm. The Christian can be sorrowful, and yet still rejoicing.

The reason a Christian can rejoice in sorrow is in the knowledge that God himself, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has offered peace to all mankind and received by his people. The restlessness found within man, the longing for something this world cannot satisfy, it’s rooted in the separation between God and man. Christ addresses our deepest need by making way for us to be reconciled to God. Christianity passes the permanence test. Its peace can’t be taken and it becomes a rock of refuge in this life, and the next.