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Two on Happiness

Two on Happiness

Last updated on: September 18, 2026 at 8:00 am by Coyle Neal

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Two on Happiness 2026-09-12T14:54:40-06:00 Coyle Neal

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Two new books on happiness have come out in the last few months, one on happiness itself and one on what Christians can learn from Aristotle–who was himself deeply concerned with happiness.

Image: Amazon

The one on happiness itself is the latest from Andrew Wilson and simply titled Happiness.

In this book we get an overview of what Scriptures has to say about happiness in the Christian (and in the human) life overall. Namely, we are made for happiness, but we often don’t understand how to find it. Fortunately the Bible tells us not only that we are made to be happy, but also explains why we are not and gives us the antidote in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

So much could be said in a pamphlet. Wilson does much more than this. He walks through the nature of happiness, the obstacles to it, and the promise that whatever ways we fail to achieve it in this life will be one day overcome for those who have repented of their sins and believed the Gospel. In other words, this is no quick-fix book. It is a serious (but still accessible!) meditation on happiness that very much should be on your shelf.

The other book that also deals extensively (though not exclusively) with happiness is Louis Markos recent volume From Aristotle to Christ: How Aristotelian Thought Clarified the Christian Faith. What is obviously a reasonably-titled follow-up to his previous book From Plato to Christ (reviewed here), this book digs into Aristotle’s philosophical, ethical, political, and biological works. As with Plato, there is much in Aristotle that Christians should be wary of (to say the least). But also as with Plato, there is much wisdom in Aristotle that can, well, clarify our thought.

I don’t have the space to go too much into the detail here, but along with the Wilson book I should at least note the role of happiness in Aristotle as explored by Markos. Specifically happiness is the goal of life. Not that at every moment we are consciously thinking “happiness is my goal, therefore I will do X thing.” Rather, everything we do is more or less consciously aimed at making ourselves happy. The fact that we do not consciously reflect on this truth might be a limitation of our natures, but it is nonetheless a reality.

The problem is that what we think will make us happy is sometimes wrong; and what we think it actually means to be happy is also sometimes mistaken. Perhaps I believe that the euphoria induced by drugs is true happiness. Maybe it’s sex, or music, or, well, the possibilities are as varied as people are. The reality, however, is that there is a true form of happiness that we can only genuinely recognize if we are virtuous people. A life aligned with the highest good (itself a reflection of the nature of God) is the only truly happy life–everything else might give a moment of pleasure, but will ultimately not only leave us unsatisfied but will reduce us to slavery as we pursuit pleasures that we can no longer achieve.

So we can see where Aristotle offers important insights. Shift a few terms and add in the Gospel, and, well, Aquinas was on to something when he mined Aristotle to help explain Christian theology.

Not that everything in Aristotle is good, and not that we should adopt his system whole. Like any worldly philosopher (or any Christian philosopher, for that matter), we should take what’s good and leave what’s not and move on with life. Markos has done an excellent job at this, and this book should definitely be on your shelf if you want to think more deeply about life, the universe, and everything. (And I know, I know, that’s not Aristotle. But it’s not NOT Aristotle either…)

We all want to be happy. The most morose, mopey person out there is following a path that they think will ultimately leave them satisfied. As Christians we are obligated both to pursue true happiness ourselves and to point others towards Jesus, the source and giver of all happiness. These two books are excellent resources to help you do both of those things.

Dr. Coyle Neal co-hosts the City of Man Podcast, blogs here on Schaeffer’s Ghost, and is an Amazon Associate (which is linked in this blog). He teaches Political Science, Philosophy, and History in Southwest Missouri.

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