An Invitation To Develop A Philosophy of Pleasure

Is it not instructive of our bias that society popularly brands many tragedies as “Acts of God”?

I have often wondered why it is that while we relentlessly seek God’s answers when in the throes of suffering, we rarely pause with equal sincerity to ask Him for wisdom in pleasure.

Have we bought into a belief that God is not interested in making life enjoyable? Has the Christian faith somehow been reshaped to appear as a killer of pleasure or barrier to fun? Has amusement now been handed over to “the world” so that the very idea of pleasure is seen as inimical to spirituality?

Few issues are in as much need of being thought through and carefully addressed as this one. Nobody denies that the varieties of pleasure offered in our consumer culture have opened up once unthinkable possibilities – and in staggering proportions. Billions of dollars are spent in the pleasure industry, appealing to anything from the delightful to the offensive, the cerebral to the sensual, the informative to the unconscionable. Sights, sounds, images, tastes, passions, and experiences abound, all offered up in alluring array. We have in our hands some of the finest technology, and what creative genius could do with all of this is something worth pondering. For after all, we do have a need to be entertained.

How do we choose that which is legitimate pleasure and reject that which is illegitimate? More to the point, how do we learn to think on these matters constructively rather than live pragmatically, making momentary decisions?

Of particular concern to many of us is the frustration that is felt in knowing how to guide our own children, for theirs is a world of limitless opportunities. What deep struggles must engulf them as they are fed a steady diet of all that appeals to the eye and the imagination, with so little to nurture the conscience. They are being manipulated into the belief that appetite is a sufficient reason to consume anything. And what is worse, new appetites are being created that leave them hungrier than before and under the illusion that they can be met if one could only remove all restraint.

Please hear me: All pleasure does not come with a warning label.

Is it not clear, then, that we must have a philosophy of pleasure? A way to guide our children and discipline our own living?

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