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Summary: A Beautiful Analysis of God's Heart
Review: I hated this book the first time I read it. It seemed dry and meaningless and impractical. But for some reason I read it a second time, and I was astounded by it. Piper does extremely well in determining from scripture and life what gives God pleasure. The practical issue of how we too ought to take pleasure of these things is never directly dealt with, but if one reads it with such an understanding, the implications are clear, and there is incredible joy in the result. Most distinctly theological books are so dry as to leave you parched every time you open the book. This is one is not. Piper's words are fresh and alive and flow naturally. There is little in the way of theological terms and language, and so it reads well without being complex and a struggle to get through. The concepts are simple yet profound, and as these concepts are unfolded, the reader should be drawn upwards to understand God better and see him more clearly. Even if you hate this book when you first begin reading it, don't give up on it completely. I too found life a second time around.
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Summary: Theology and passion become one
Review: I have read practically all of Piper's books, including his classic Desiring God, and the Pleasures of God outranks all of them. Piper manages to accomplish something that very few theologians can: mesh theology and joyful devotion to God. Theology to Piper is by no means an end in itself; it is meant to direct God's people towards him with deeper understanding of his character. Piper is humble and yet strongly convicted in his apprehension of God and the ways in which he interacts with his son Jesus Christ and his people. He puts down all vying theologies with passion and scriptural weaponry. This book is not for the new Christian or someone trying to explore the character of God for the first time; it is for those who have meditated on scripture for some time but are looking to be impassioned by the Bible and apply its sublime truths in richer, more accurate ways. This book is like the Bible in that it prepares and motivates the reader for application, without w! hich it is meaningless.
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Summary: The best is now even better!
Review: In this revised and expanded version of Piper's classic book on the character of God, there is a new chapter entitled, "The Pleasure of God in Concealing Himself from the Wise and Revealing Himself to Infants." It is, he writes, "a biblical foundation and justification for the kind of prayer-soaked, God-centered intellectual labor it takes to write and read a book like this. It carries implications for all levels of Christian education from the cradle to the university. Does God really call us to this kind of thinking, or is it too dangerous to be worth it?" (p. 12). Piper also updated the missions information from the original edition, as well as added an appendix containing his article, "Are There Two Wills in God? Divine Election and God's Desire for All to Be Saved." The appendix alone is worth the price of the book, as I consider it to be the most helpful article Piper has ever written. James Montgomery Boice writes, "No contemporary author of whom I'm aware understands and articulates the glorious depths of God's character like John Piper does. This excellent book will not only stir up your passion for God, it will also help you obey the psalmist's command: 'O taste and see that the LORD is good!' (Psalm 34:8). John has tasted and here shares his delight in the supremacy of God in all things. It is theology of the best and deepest sort, welling up from the heart of a man who has learned to love God by enjoying him deeply." The feast Piper set before us in 1991 is now even more better.
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Summary: Soul Satisfying
Review: Piper's hope and prayer in writing this book is that "more and more people would meditate with me on the pleasures of God; and that in doing so we would focus our attention on his excellency and glory. In this way our souls would be increasingly satisfied with God and changed gradually into his likeness" (21). Further, Piper's desire is that this book will "cut the calluses off the mind and heart that keep them [the churches] from feeling the force of God's passion for his fame among all the unreached peoples of the world" (p.115). Allow this book to show you that "God's delight in being God is not sung the way it should be, with wonder and passion, in the worship places of the world. And we are the poorer and weaker for it" (p. 21). The first six chapters focus entirely on God's pleasure in His own nature and work, beginning with the foundational truth that God has from all eternity been supremely happy in the fellowship of the Trinity. Piper says that "from this inexhaustible fountain of self-replenishing joy flows the freedom of God in all his sovereign work - creating the universe, spreading his fame, choosing a people, and bruising his Son" (p.22). At chapter seven, the focus turns to God's pleasure in the responses of his people - those who hope in Him, the prayers of the upright, personal obedience, public justice, and his pleasure in concealing himself from the wise and revealing himself to infants. One of the things that I love about Piper's writings is that he raises Scriptures that seem to contradict each other, yet he refuses to choose between them, or to cancel one out by the other. For example, in dealing with God's delight in all he does, Piper not only presents passages such as Psalm 135:6 which says, "Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps". He also gathers texts such as Ezekiel 18:32, which says, "And as the LORD took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the LORD will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you". When affirming the pleasure of God in all He does it would be much easier to select those texts which support our more comfortable view of God, and to overlook those which stir our wills to reevaluate the text instead of our doctrine. Instead of letting such apparently contradictory verses lie, Piper seeks to gaze as deeply as possible into the mysterious mind of God to see how the paradox is true and to see in what sense it is true (p.72). Some of the other paradoxes that he raises and sheds light on are how God can delight in his own beauty and perfection without being vain, how he can delight in his creation and not be an idolater and how he can derive pleasure out of bruising his Son (cf. Is. 53:10, Acts 2:23, Eph. 5:2). By the way, Piper has an excellent appendix at the end of the book which walks us through the "two wills" of God, which the above examples are evidences of. But rarely is this type of thinking seen in much of the opinionated writings that are currently sought out these days because theological tension and meditation isn't welcomed by the average believer. It is extremely satisfying to read a brother who deals with difficult passages of Scripture head on, and who offers the reader a jewel that many others have found too difficult or controversial to mine. In The Pleasures of God, Piper pulls the shade back for us to get a glimpse of the greatness of God's glory so we can have gladness as his people. To see the pleasures of God is to know what drives him and motivates him. Once when we grasp this, we are changed by him. I'm in agreement with the statement by Joni Eareckson Tada on the back cover of The Pleasures of God - "Run, don't walk, to buy this remarkable work".
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Summary: Read this One! One of the Best Christian Books Written
Review: The Pleasures of God is by far one of the great books of our generation. John Piper is not only a clear and easy to follow theologian, he has a zeal and enthusiasm for the Person of God that is contagious. The genre of this book is hard to peg. Its theology runs deep - very deep, yet it is at the same time devotional; it stretches the intellect but cuts straight to the heart. Piper's style is truly unique. His convictions are unashamedly Biblical. The essence of the book may be condensed down to this: God does just as He pleases. Yet this thesis opens a universe of implications and questions, some of which Piper addresses in the book's ten chapters. They are titled, "The Pleasure of God in His Son, The Pleasure of God in All He Does, The Pleasure of God in His Creation, The Pleasure of God in His Fame, The Pleasure of God in Election, The Pleasure of God in Bruising the Son, The Pleasure of God in Doing Good to All Who Hope in Him, The Pleasure of God in the Prayers of the Upright, The Pleasure of God in Personal Obedience and Public Justice, and The Pleasure of God in Concealing Himself from the Wise and Revealing Himself to Infants."
The Appendix, "Are There Two Wills in God? Divine Election and God's Desire for All to Be Saved" is also worth reading and should be considered an eleventh chapter. Piper's God is the Sovereign God of the Bible. Although we can only understand what He has revealed, He makes no apology for being God nor for His nature; instead, He glories in Who He is. Because the believer is in union with Him through Christ, we are included in the great love felt between the Persons of the Trinity. Piper takes the reader through numerous theological and daily issues, like election, why a good God would allow evil, foreign missions, prayer, the holiness of God, the Sovereignty of God, the purpose of Christ's atonement - and a whole lot more. I found that this book stretched not only my mind but my soul. World Magazine rightly included this volume on its list of the top 100 books of the Twentieth Century. It will take you a while to journey through these 340 thoughtful pages, but it will be a journey you will long remember.
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Summary: A Rare, Relentlessly God-Centered Work
Review: This is the most God-centered work that the decidedly theocentric pastor John Piper has produced. Not coincidentally, this is also Dr. Piper's best work. Dr. Piper begins by considering a quote from Henry Scougal: the excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love. Scougal was referring to human souls, but nevertheless this quote raised a question in Dr. Piper's mind: couldn't we also measure the greatness of God by looking at the objects of his love? Every chapter analyzes one object of God's love, and how God's affections for each object reveal his greatness. Chapter One is the foundation for everything that follows. There Dr. Piper examines the ultimate pleasure of God the Father: his Son, who is the perfect, fully divine image of himself. Every subsequent chapter is memorable. Chapters Two and Three contemplate God's free sovereignty and fame, respectively. Chapter Four, on God's delight in his creation, is a much-needed corrective to the widespread belief that (as Stephen Jay Gould once wrote) whatever we think of God, his wisdom is not manifest in nature. Chapter Five is a clear popular defense of unconditional election. Chapter Six is the book's climax, and reveals how the Father's delight in bruising his Son lay in displaying his righteousness while justifying those who belittled his glory. Chapters Seven through Nine consider different facets of God's delight in his dealings with us humans. Chapter Ten contains a powerful defense of the place of study and thinking in the Christian life. And the appendix, "Are There Two Wills in God?" is a little masterpiece in its own right. This is by no means a perfect work, being the product of a finite and fallen mind. But Dr. Piper clearly finds God totally enthralling, and he has painted a portrait of God that is biblically solid and overwhelmingly lovely. The Pleasures of God is a stirring expression of happy, God-centered theology and devotion.
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