Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness by David K. Naugle

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Synopsis

If we have a particle of sense, St. Augustine said, we realize that we all want to be happy. In fact, we were designed to crave happiness — human happiness was actually God’s original idea. Why is it, then, that it so often cannot be found? Are we looking in the wrong places?

David K. Naugle begins with the biblical creation account, arguing that God’s plan for happiness was based around a loving relationship with the Creator, our work, relationships, food, rest and recreation, homes and habitats — an “edenistic” happiness called shalom. Then the plan went wrong: man sinned against God. Now separate from the Creator, man attached his loves in excessive ways to various things to fill the need for that perfect love now missing. Yet while searching for that happiness, our disordered loves have disordered our lives. Our quest for happiness results in misery. Only the restoration of a loving relationship with God can bring us back into shalom.

Naugle here presents a counter cultural — both secular and church culture — view of happiness, drawing us back to the original and perfect model we must strive for. Reordered Love, Reordered Lives points readers to the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to discover the truly happy life in God.

Publishers Weekly

Human beings are constantly searching for happiness, but too often seek it from insufficient and disappointing sources. This is the message that Naugle, professor of philosophy at Dallas Baptist University, eloquently presents. He argues that human beings have always searched for happiness, but come up empty most of the time because we cling to things of the created world rather than to the Creator. His prose is engaging, peppered with intriguing quotes from pop culture books, music and movies that propel his exposition along. The author's discussion of virtues is particularly compelling, and his presentation breathes new life into this topic. Many Christians will enjoy this book and be renewed in their quest for true happiness. Others will not, given the author's insistence that accepting Jesus is the only way to real happiness. In a religiously pluralistic world, the wisdom of Christianity can be shared with everyone if presented correctly. While the author lost that opportunity here, he is able to capture the sense of longing to live for something greater than themselves that so many feel, regardless of their religious views. (Nov.)

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Biography

David K. Naugle is chair and professor of philosophy at Dallas Baptist University. He is also the author of Worldview: The History of a Concept (Eerdmans), selected at the 2003 Christianity Today book of the year.