God and the Art of Happiness by Ellen T. Charry (review)

638 BOOK REVIEWS radically “democratic” character of phronetic perception gives to the moral world a solidity and objectivity not present in Arendt’s theory. My only complaint about this book is that Kontos—who is Greek and writes often in French—occasionally uses phrases that are not standard English. On page 49, for instance, he speaks of possibly “ascribing to Aristotle a conception that reminds of contemporary moral realism.” But I am very sure that Italians can make—and have made—similar complaints about the occasional pieces that I publish in their language. KEVIN FLANNERY Gregorian University Rome, Italy God and the Art of Happiness. By ELLEN T. CHARRY. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2011. Pp. 316. $35.00 (cloth). ISBN: 978-0-8028-6032-3. In his “Regensburg Lecture,” Pope Benedict XVI famously outlined the dehellenization of the gospel as one of the great challenges to an authentic Christian theology in the contemporary age. Such dehellenization is characterized by a separation of the Christian proclamation from its roots in Logos or reason. Pope Benedict indicates that a multistage process began with the fourteenth-century nominalists, was intensified in the Protestant reformers, was radicalized in the philosophy of Kant and other Enlightenment thinkers, continued into the reductionist history of Harnack, and has now culminated in the postmodern confusion of multiculturalism. In contrast, Pope Benedict presents a Christian theology necessarily Hellenistic insofar as it employs Greek language and philosophical concepts to express the message of salvation destined to be brought to the ends of the earth. As Logos roots the intellectual dimension of the gospel, the notion of happiness roots the moral dimension of the gospel. The one who is “the way, the truth, and the life” is the one who proclaims his followers to be “blessed” or “happy.” Writing as a Protestant theologian, Ellen Charry helpfully responds to the complaint that Greek eudaimonism—or happiness as the goal of the moral life—was not present in the Scriptures and was only later added by means of an erroneous, Catholic tendency to include Greek philosophy. Charry’s book corrects the tendency to downplay the role of happiness in salvation. She addresses this theme throughout the two parts of the book. In the first, she presents an historical survey of the relationship between happiness and salvation among prominent theologians of the Christian tradition. In the second, she undertakes a reading of major books in the Old Testament and the BOOK REVIEWS 639 New Testament to present a salvation of healing and happiness rooted in God’s covenant with Israel and the Church. A central theme in Charry’s book is that Christianity is the story of God’s healing work. Human beings are fundamentally broken. The good news is that God understands this brokenness and enacts a dramatic plan for our restoration unto wholeness. This view of salvation assists in establishing the unity of theology along several fronts. First, the Old Testament is united with the New Testament (or the “older” and the “younger” per the author). With the common goal of healing our brokenness, each testament has its unique way of proceeding. The Old Testament emphasizes the corporate unity of covenantal obedience and the peace begotten by following the path of wisdom. The New Testament, especially in John, emphasizes more the personal decision to believe in Jesus and to keep his commandments, and so enter into eternal life. Furthermore, this way of approaching salvation unites the biblical vision with the later ecumenical creeds and the theology of St. Augustine and even St. Thomas Aquinas. In the context of the author’s proximate Protestant readership, she successfully defends the role of happiness as integral to the Christian proclamation. In contemporary language, happiness results from healing. Drawing upon St. Augustine’s insight that all human beings are diseased by disordered love, Charry notes that the calling of Israel and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus show forth a way of healing human beings unto wholeness. This is a meaningful grace that touches each person in the midst of suffering—both the suffering caused by our own sins and the suffering caused by the sins of others. One can also see that these practices...