The Pursuit of Happiness as an Axiom Within Spiritual Formation: Analyzing the Role of the Happiness Within Moral and Spiritual Growth

This article argues that training the universal happiness impulse within each of us toward Christocentric directions serves as a constructive axiom within Christian spiritual formation. Although contemporary Christian discourse often treats happiness with suspicion, fearing its association with secularism, prosperity teaching, or naïve emotionalism, historic Christian thought consistently linked happiness with virtue, discipleship, and abiding by Jesus’ teachings. By tracing philosophical, historical, and biblical perspectives, particularly the vision of flourishing embedded in the Sermon on the Mount, this article contends that authentic happiness emerges as a byproduct of acquiring Christlike virtue. Recognizing happiness as an orienting desire can clarify its formative purpose within askêsis and illuminate how growth in holiness can yield genuine joy in life with God.