I read this paragraph in Steinbeck’s East of Eden and it wrecked me, in a good way. This pericope reminds me of how children innately see their parents as immortal beings impervious to corruption, as well as to the constellation of cracks that take place in their porcelain little minds when they realize that their…

Sin is a form of self-harm, some might even say, self-hatred. For example, when a man is not a good husband, and, say, repeatedly commits adultery, he not only hurts his wife and children, but also his own wellbeing. Put differently, by fulfilling his role as a faithful husband, who models his loving actions to…

It is widely acknowledged that some of the early church fathers, such as Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Jerome, and even Augustine, were partially influenced by Greek philosophy, particularly Plato’s metaphysical philosophy of splitting reality into two realms: an upper level of atemporal, immaterial ideals, and a lower level of temporal, physical matter.[1] The…

You were made for fulfillment! But that’s not the same thing as saying you were made for pleasure. Pleasure, however, is not a bad thing. Matter-of-fact, pleasure can be the natural consequence of eating a satiable meal or spending quality-time with an ole friend or behaving virtuously. The kind of pleasure that gets a bad…

In the recent cinematic production of Marvel Studios Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), a ruthless “Celestial” (deity), who came into existence millions of years ago and goes by the name “Ego,” has grown bored of his own immortality, not to mention being deeply disappointed with the inferior beings who inhabit the universe. So…

From the dark abyss of suffering was born my book Biblical Ethics. Five years ago, the last thing on my mind was writing a book on how to live a morally happy, flourishing life. I was deep in the throes of a PhD program when the walls of my intellectual ivory tower came crashing down….

When we live the way we are supposed to, God is glorified and we are blessed (happy)! Sadly, most well-meaning dutiful Christians take issue with the notion that happiness is for the here-and-now, delaying it for the afterlife. Too often they gorge themselves on an ethical diet of doing the right thing out of a…

When I was in graduate school at Biola, I had a professor who would call us “naturalists”! At the time I thought he was saying it in jest, but now I realize he was at least partially kidding. So how can self-professed Christians be naturalists? I think what my professor meant was that as Christians…

Worldly “happiness” is merely subjective (i.e., emotional) and non-virtuous, ergo, non-moral, not to mention superficial and fleeting. The world seeks it directly as a feeling but cannot attain it because true happiness is a byproduct of morality (e.g., justice and righteousness). By comparison, biblical happiness is character-based. That is, true felicity is virtuous, ergo, moral….

One of my favorite Bible verses is 2 Corinthians 5:17, which claims, “anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (NLT) But what does that mean in relation to who we are as a complete human being? Does it mean that everything about…