John Piper

Life

John Stephen Piper was born in 1946 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, the son of an itinerant evangelist. From 1964 to 1968 he studied literature at Wheaton College, where he met and married his wife, Noël. He then earned a Bachelor of Divinity (BD) at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he is said to have first encountered the writings of Jonathan Edwards. In 1974 he received a doctorate in New Testament studies from the University of Munich in West Germany, and from 1974 to 1980 he taught biblical studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

In 1980 he became pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. His title was "Pastor for Preaching and Vision," and he served the church for about thirty-three years, until March 2013. He preached his final sermon there on Easter 2013. During his tenure he took an eight-month leave from ministry, from May 2010 to January 2011. Since retiring he has devoted himself to the Desiring God ministry and serves as chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary.

Ministry and Contributions

At the center of Piper's theology is an idea he calls Christian Hedonism. The word "hedonism" properly refers to the pursuit of pleasure. Borrowing the term, Piper summarizes his view in the statement "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." He says that he arrived at this idea in 1968 through reading Edwards and C. S. Lewis. With the publication in 1986 of Desiring God, a book devoted to the subject, he became widely known within American evangelicalism.

In 1994 he founded Desiring God, a ministry named after the book. The organization makes his sermons, articles, and most of his books available free of charge online. He has written more than fifty books and is reported to have donated his royalties to Desiring God and Bethlehem College & Seminary. Theologically, he is classified as a Reformed Baptist who holds to a Calvinist soteriology. Bethlehem Baptist Church, which he pastored, belongs to Converge, an American Baptist association.

Influence on the Korean Church

His best-known work, Desiring God, was first published in Korean in 1998 by Word of Life Press under the title Hananimeul Gippeohara ("Delight in God"), translated by Park Dae-young; several revised editions have since appeared. His other books have also been translated into Korean, and Korean publishers commonly introduce him as a "Christian Hedonist." His sermons are likewise translated and circulated through Korean Christian media.

Assessment

Admirers regard him as a preacher who has presented God's glory and human joy as a unified whole, and they count him among the most influential pastors in the United States. It is also frequently noted that, at his own request, his salary was kept modest and that he lived for decades in the same house near the church.

Others hold differing views. Some have persistently questioned whether the word "hedonism" suggests the pursuit of sensual pleasure, and Piper has repeatedly explained what he means by the term. On justification (God's declaring sinners righteous), his views differ from those of scholars associated with the so-called "New Perspective" on Paul, which proposes a fresh reading of Pauline theology, among them N. T. Wright; this disagreement has prompted ongoing scholarly discussion. In addition, his Calvinist soteriology proceeds from a different starting point than that of churches in the Arminian or Wesleyan traditions. As a result, the reception of his theology varies by denomination.