Holy Unhappiness: God, Goodness, and the Myth of the Blessed Life

Amanda Held Opelt's Holy Unhappiness challenges the false beliefs many in the church hold about the good life and what it means to walk in communion with God. She examines the historic, religious, and cultural influences that led to the idolization of positive feelings and the marginalization of negative feelings, and points to a new path forward that reimagines what the blessed life can be like if we release some of our expectations and seek God in places we never thought to look.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 01 August 2024
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

American Christians have created a lengthy list of expectations regarding what life with God will entail. Many Christians reject the prosperity gospel, which asserts that God desires for us to be healthy and wealthy, but instead embrace its more subtle spin-off, the emotional prosperity gospel, which suggests that happiness and spiritual ecstasy will inevitably result if we believe all the correct things and make all the correct decisions. In this perspective, frustration is considered unholy, fear is viewed as a lack of faith, and sadness is interpreted as a sign of God's disapproval. In her book Holy Unhappiness, Amanda Held Opelt, the author of A Hole in the World, grapples with her own experience of disillusionment when life with God did not always feel the way she had anticipated. She examines some of the historical, religious, and cultural factors that contributed to the idolization of positive emotions and the marginalization of negative emotions. By unpacking nine elements of life that have been tarnished by the message of the emotional Prosperity Gospel, including work, marriage, parenting, calling, community, and church, she points to a new path forward, one that reimagines what the blessed life can be like if we release some of our expectations and seek God in places we never thought to look. This is a book that asks what good is God? when he does not always make sorrow go away or soothe every fear. It is a book that explores our aversion to sadness and counts the costs of our unrelenting commitment to optimism. This is a book that insists there is holiness to be found even in our unhappiness.

Weight: 260g
Dimension: 202 x 132 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781546001935