In this study, she addresses her
concern that Christian theology lacks a substantial doctrine of human
flourishing. In the book's first section, Charry surveys the history of
philosophy and Christian doctrine to reveal overlooked thinkers from Augustine
to the Anglican divine Joseph Butler who encourage human flourishing. In the
second section, Charry examines the biblical foundations of a doctrine she
calls "asherism" (from the Hebrew asher, to be happy) and finds that
Scripture encourages Christians to organize life around God so as to be buoyed
by God's love, beauty, goodness, and wisdom. This discussion is what makes the
book memorable for theologians, and probably boring for others. It has an
innovative teaching of ‘asherism.’ Asherism avoids the dangers of self-denying
agapism (love that would let people walk all over you) and self-serving
eudaemonism (your personal pleasure is your goal) by confirming our perennial
need to love God, neighbor, and self at once and to live out our lives and
vocations by the letter, spirit, and telos of both the law and the gospel.”
Happiness, she concludes, is celebrating our own spiritual growth and
well-being and God's enjoyment of these. She makes it clear that Christians
need not be dour and gloomy about life, but that their traditions do encourage
them to put on a happy face.
As she sees it, western Christian
theology is skittish about happiness. We hope for future, eternal happiness,
but we avoid considering happiness in this life as if we suspect that God would
not allow such a thing. The book offers a refreshing interpretation of
happiness as a way of life grounded in scripture and the incarnate Christ.
Ellen Charry here reveals how the
Bible encourages the happiness and joy that accompany obedience to the Creator,
enhancing both our own life and the lives of those around us. This advances the
wellbeing of creation, which, in turn, causes God to delight with, in, and for
us.
Charry says that the divine goal of
Christian truth is to produce virtue, and, thus, theology ought to be more
concerned with teaching wisdom -- the root of happiness -- than knowledge. She
believes that knowledge is a necessary, but subordinate, means to character
formation. The same should be true about our study of Scripture. Yes, it helps
us know what is in the Bible, but the larger purpose of our study is to help us
become the person God calls us to be.
If our reading of the Old Testament
brings us face to face with the asherist commands, our reading of the New
Testament brings us, among other things, the Sermon on the Mount. That, too,
aims at teaching wisdom and helping us create communities that thrive.
Not all Old Testament commands
are asherist. Some, says Charry, are "single occurrence or rarely
occurring ... orders" related to a specific time or circumstance, to test
obedience." For example, when God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, it was an obedience test. The asherist
commands, however, are guidelines that commend an ongoing way of life. They
include the Ten Commandments, certainly, but also the laws about how to treat
the poor and the resident alien, and how to use the land. The asherist commands
teach us the values God holds for human interactions and life together.
I am going to explore some wisdom during worship this month. However, the
reflections I discovered on this book helped me in another way. Preaching and
teaching in the church, I hope, prepares us for eternity. However, that fact
must not make us neglect the importance of this time and place God has given us.
God has made this world. God wants us to
enjoy it. The best we can do that is to follow the wisdom we find in Scripture.
It helps us to avoid the many pitfalls in life and bringing us on the path of a
“blessed” life.
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