Augustine of Hippo on happiness and the philosophers

[Reformed Covenanter]

... The philosophers have much to say on this subject, but one does not find among them true affection, that is, true worship of the true God, to which all the activities of right living ought to be directed. This arises chiefly, as I understand it, because they wanted to construct their own happiness for themselves, in one way or another, and they thought this was more a matter of doing than of receiving, whereas God is its only giver. Only He who made man makes man’s happiness. He who lavishes such gifts on His creatures, both bad and good–existence, human nature, vigorous faculties of sense, strength of body, abundance of resources–will give Himself to the good to be their happiness, because their goodness is also His gift.

But there are others who, in spite of this toilsome life, of these bodies doomed to death under this burden of corruptible flesh, have chosen to be the originators and the creators, so to speak, of their own happiness, striving for it and holding it as if it were the result of their own strength, not seeking it and hoping for it from that source of strength, and these have not been able to see that God resists their pride. Hence, they fell into the most extravagant error, as when they assert that a wise man is happy even in the bull of Phalaris, and are then forced to admit that happiness is sometimes to be shunned. ...

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Augustine of Hippo on happiness and the philosophers

My joy is the greater because I discern the yearning of your mind, with its love for eternal life and truth and charity itself, directed toward that divine and heavenly country whose king is Christ…

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[Mrs. B-N]

Only He who made man makes man’s happiness. He who lavishes such gifts on His creatures, both bad and good–existence, human nature, vigorous faculties of sense, strength of body, abundance of resources–will give Himself to the good to be their happiness, because their goodness is also His gift.

Few can express like Augustine the centrality, the absolute necessity, of life in Christ and that without Him we have nothing.