Note: From, Happiness (Crossway, 2026). Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Citations have been omitted.
Everyone wants to be happy. They may not always agree on what happiness is, and they certainly do not always agree on how to experience it. But whatever it is, they want it. So do you. “All men seek happiness,” wrote Blaise Pascal. “This is without exception. However different the means they may employ, they all strive towards this goal…. This is the end of every act of every man, including those who go and hang themselves.”[Blaise Pascal, Pensées, trans. A. J. Krailsheimer, p. 45]
So it is not surprising that an awful lot of books have been written on the subject. There are books on happy habits, brains, diets and chemicals; books on happy families, philosophies and religions; books on the science of happiness, the sociology of happiness, the theology of happiness and the history of happiness; books on how you can be happy if you really want to be and books on how you will actually be happier if you stop trying to be. In such a flooded landscape of ideas, it is probably worth explaining the approach taken in this book before we get started.
Pathways to Happy Days
Happiness is an attempt to bring together three types of writing on happiness. All three have influenced me in important ways, but they are almost always kept separate from one another. The first type is biblical and pastoral, in which the case is made from scripture that God is happy and wants us to find our highest joy in him. The second type is theological and philosophical; it mounts an argument for considering happiness as the result of living a virtuous, loving and good life, in dialogue with Christian theologians and ancient and modern philosophers. The third type is psychological and sociological, full of studies, charts and all kinds of practical recommendations on how to live a happier life. The second and especially the third types often have bright yellow covers. The first type never does.
Some writers combine two of these three genres. C. S. Lewis, who wrote about joy in most of his books, bridges the first and the second. Jonathan Haidt is an influential example of someone who blends the second and the third. But in Happiness, I seek to integrate all three. I am convinced we can learn from pastors, theologians, philosophers and psychologists on the subject of happiness – and that some of our greatest thinkers, from Paul to Augustine to Pascal to Lewis, were comfortable wearing any of these various hats if the situation required it. I have also found it both intriguing and encouraging to discover how often the best thinkers in each category are saying very similar things.
Structurally, this book is organized around six questions: why, what, who, when, where and how. I start by considering why enjoyment is possible, rooted in what scripture says about the character and purposes of God (chap. 1). Then I explore what happiness actually is and how the wide range of words we use for it overlap and differ from one another (chap. 2), before looking at who we are and how our bodies, souls, natures, minds, emotions and brains collaborate – or not – in our desire to rejoice (chap. 3). In the next two chapters we think about the when and the where of enjoyment, drawing from Ecclesiastes and the Psalms in particular to reflect on how happiness relates first to time (chap. 4) and then to space (chap. 5). We finish with the very practical question that most people are asking (chap. 6): How can we actually rejoice in the Lord, live the good life and experience joy?
Eeyores and Tiggers
A couple of disclaimers before we start. First, I am a pastor. My specialist training is in the study of the New Testament, not positive psychology or mental health; and although I have done my best to learn about these fields in the areas where they overlap with the subject of this book, I would be the first to admit that I am not an expert on them. Readers looking for more details (and credentials!) can follow the footnotes in the relevant sections, especially in chapters 3 and 6.
Second, I am also by nature quite a cheerful person. That might sound like a strange disclaimer, especially if you have been raised to believe you should never trust a skinny chef. But as we will see, our God-given dispositions play a major role in the extent to which we experience joy in this life – although not (thankfully!) in eternity – and those of us who are Eeyores by nature can often find it annoying to be told to cheer up by Tiggers, especially if they do not realize how much their positivity results from their temperament. I hope that a mixture of pastoral experience, personal trials and a bit of self-awareness will prevent me from falling into that trap, but I thought it was better to come clean about it nonetheless.
With all that said, here is a book on what happiness is, where to find it and how to make it last forever. Enjoy.
Content taken from Happiness:What It Is, Where to Find It, and How to Make It Last Forever by Andrew Wilson, ©2026. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, crossway.org.
Andrew Wilson, teaching pastor, King’s Church London
