Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness
David K. Naugle
Eerdmans. 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8028-2817-0
$18
If we have a particle of sense, St. Augustine said, we realize that we all want to be happy. What’s more, God actually designed human beings to crave and seek happiness. Why, then, is there so much unhappiness in the world? According to David Naugle, it’s because, in our desperate quest, we’re looking in the wrong places.
Reordered Love, Reordered Lives explores a distinctly Augustinian theme that is supremely relevant for the twenty-first century. Naugle explains that if we love properly — that is, if we love beginning with God and progressing to other humans, ourselves, and the world around us — we will also live properly and, in so doing, will find our own true happiness. Packed with select quotes and references to popular music, literature, and other media — and including provocative questions for discussion — the book presents classic theological ideas in a conversational and edgy fashion. Naugle’s refreshing take is sure to appeal to anyone searching for happiness — which, in the end, is all of us.