What is the purpose of life? What Christian Writers Said, AD 174 to 1908

God as the highest good

20 passages · 9 writers · 300s to 1900s

Augustine says the chief good of man is God, in cleaving to whom he is blessed. Aquinas says God is the last end of man, that no created good can constitute man's happiness, and that God alone can satisfy the will. Wesley and Owen say man's aim is to enjoy God, and Henry says God alone is the felicity and chief good of man.

c. 388 · Augustine of Hippo, On the Morals of the Catholic Church (De moribus ecclesiae catholicae) 1.3.5

We must now inquire what is man’s chief good, which of course cannot be anything inferior to man himself. For whoever follows after what is inferior to himself, becomes himself inferior. But every man is bound to follow what is best. Wherefore man’s chief good is not inferior to man. Is it then something similar to man himself? It must be so, if there is nothing above man which he is capable of enjoying. But if we find something which is both superior to man, and can be possessed by the man who loves it, who can doubt that in seeking for happiness man should endeavor to reach that which is more excellent than the being who makes the endeavor. For if happiness consists in the enjoyment of a good than which there is nothing better, which we call the chief good, how can a man be properly called happy who has not yet attained to his chief good? or how can that be the chief good beyond which something better remains for us to arrive at?

1265–1273 · Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II, q. 1, a. 8, co.

I answer that, As the Philosopher says (Phys. ii, 2), the end is twofold---the end "for which" and the end "by which"; viz. the thing itself in which is found the aspect of good, and the use or acquisition of that thing. Thus we say that the end of the movement of a weighty body is either a lower place as "thing," or to be in a lower place, as "use"; and the end of the miser is money as "thing," or possession of money as "use." If, therefore, we speak of man's last end as of the thing which is the end, thus all other things concur in man's last end, since God is the last end of man and of all other things. If, however, we speak of man's last end, as of the acquisition of the end, then irrational creatures do not concur with man in this end. For man and other rational creatures attain to their last end by knowing and loving God: this is not possible to other creatures, which acquire their last end, in so far as they share in the Divine likeness, inasmuch as they are, or live, or even know.

1872 · John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions 114

Not “as if he needed anything;” seeing “he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” He made all things to be happy. He made man to be happy in Himself. He is the proper centre of spirits; for whom every created spirit was made. So true is that well-known saying of the ancient Fathers: Fecisti nos ad te: et irrequietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te: “Thou has made us for thyself; and our heart cannot rest, till it resteth in thee.”

Seeing and enjoying God

12 passages · 8 writers · 100s to 1800s

Irenaeus says the life of man consists in beholding God, and Anselm says he was created to see God. Manning says the end for which we were created is to behold God's face, and to love God and dwell in him forever. Wesley says man was created to know, love, enjoy, and serve his Creator to all eternity, and Edwards says the joy of seeing God is the true blessedness of man.

c. 180 · Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 4.20.7

For where there is a regular succession, there is also fixedness; and where fixedness, there suitability to the period; and where suitability, there also utility. And for this reason did the Word become the dispenser of the paternal grace for the benefit of men, for whom He made such great dispensations, revealing God indeed to men, but presenting man to God, and preserving at the same time the invisibility of the Father, lest man should at any time become a despiser of God, and that he should always possess something towards which he might advance; but, on the other hand, revealing God to men through many dispensations, lest man, falling away from God altogether, should cease to exist. For the glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God. For if the manifestation of God which is made by means of the creation, affords life to all living in the earth, much more does that revelation of the Father which comes through the Word, give life to those who see God.

1733 · Jonathan Edwards, The Christian Pilgrim; or the True Christian's Life a Journey towards Heaven 2

God is the highest good of the reasonable creature; and the enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied.—To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the fountain. These are but drops; but God is the ocean.—Therefore it becomes us to spend this life only as a journey towards heaven, as it becomes us to make the seeking of our highest end and proper good, the whole work of our lives; to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life.

1847 · Henry Edward Manning, Sermons, Volume 3 23

We have come, then, to the end of all our thoughts and toils. For what else were we born, and for what end came we into the world, but to behold the face of God? This is the end for which we were created; to this, as to its source and rest, our being tends; unto this all the mysteries and movements of His power and love, in nature and in the Spirit, invite and draw us. To love God, and to die; this is the end of man: or read it in the light of heaven, to love God, and to dwell in God for ever,—this is our being and our bliss.

Made for God, and restless without him

15 passages · 11 writers · 300s to 1900s

Maclaren says man is made for God, as the bird is made to soar and the fish to swim, and that God is the only aim that corresponds to our constitution. Calvin says all are born and live to learn to know God, and Augustine says nothing suffices the soul except the God who created it. Edwards says every creature is restless until it enjoys what equals the capacity of its nature, and Charnock argues from the soul's desire for a more perfect being that can give it rest.

391–430 · Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament (Sermones 51-147) 75.11

Other things begin to be desired, other fond things are hoped for; and when they come, whatsoever it is that comes to thee, is disesteemed. Hold thee fast then to God, for He can never be of light esteem, for nothing is more beautiful than He. For for this cause are these things disesteemed, because they cannot stand, because they are not what He is. For nought, O soul, sufficeth thee, save He who created thee.

1559 · John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 1.3.3

Moreover, if all are born and live for the express purpose of learning to know God, and if the knowledge of God, in so far as it fails to produce this effect, is fleeting and vain, it is clear that all those who do not direct the whole thoughts and actions of their lives to this end fail to fulfil the law of their being. This did not escape the observation even of philosophers. For it is the very thing which Plato meant (in Phœd. et Theact.) when he taught, as he often does, that the chief good of the soul consists in resemblance to God; i.e., when, by means of knowing him, she is wholly transformed into him.

1905–1906 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Isaiah 44.20

You pick up the skeleton of a bird upon a moor; and if you know anything about osteology—the science of bones—you will see, in the very make of its breast-bone and its wing-bones, the declaration that its destiny was to soar into the blue. You pick up the skeleton of a fish lying on the beach, and you will see in its very form and characteristics that its destiny is to expatiate in the depths of the sea. And, written on you, as distinctly as flight on the bird, or swimming on the fish, is this, that you are meant, by your very make, to soar up into the heights of the glory of God, and to plunge deep into the abysses of His infinite love and wisdom. Man is made for God.

Glory, service, and likeness to God

15 passages · 14 writers · 100s to 1900s

Ignatius says man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God, and Anselm says man was created for the glory of his Creator, to praise him. Edwards says the glory of God is the very thing for which man was made, and Tillotson says God's glory is our ultimate end and not an end distinct from our own happiness. Origen names likeness to God as the end.

c. 220–230 · Origen, On First Principles (De Principiis), Rufinus's Latin 3.6.1

The highest good, then, after the attainment of which the whole of rational nature is seeking, which is also called the end of all blessings, is defined by many philosophers as follows: The highest good, they say, is to become as like to God as possible. But this definition I regard not so much as a discovery of theirs, as a view derived from holy Scripture. For this is pointed out by Moses, before all other philosophers, when he describes the first creation of man in these words: “And God said, Let Us make man in Our own image, and after Our likeness;” and then he adds the words: “So God created man in His own image: in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them, and He blessed them.” Now the expression, “In the image of God created He him,” without any mention of the word “likeness,” conveys no other meaning than this, that man received the dignity of God’s image at his first creation; but that the perfection of his likeness has been reserved for the consummation,—namely, that he might acquire it for himself by the exercise of his own diligence in the imitation of God, the possibility of attaining to perfection being granted him at the beginning through the dignity of the divine image, and the perfect realization of the divine likeness being reached in the end by the fulfilment of the (necessary) works.

c. 1521–1548 · Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises 1.1

Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created. From this it follows that man is to use them as much as they help him on to his end, and ought to rid himself of them so far as they hinder him as to it. For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it; so that, on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created.

1744 · Jonathan Edwards, Wicked Men Useful in Their Destruction Only 1

Man cannot be useful actively, any otherwise than in bringing forth fruit to God; serving God and living to his glory. This is the only way wherein he can be useful in doing; and that for this reason, that the glory of God is the very thing for which man was made, and to which all other ends are subordinate. Man is not an independent being, but he derives his being from another; and therefore hath his end assigned him by that other: and he who gave him his being made him for the end now mentioned. This was the very design and aim of the Author of man, this was the work for which he made him, viz. to serve and glorify his Maker.—Other creatures, that are inferior, were made for inferior purposes.