My first acquaintance with David Myers came through his book Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith (coauthored with Malcolm Jeeves), which I use in my seminary classes in pastoral psychology. Because of the fine quality of the former book, I was eager to dis cover how this distinguished social psychologist from Dutch Reformed Hope College would deal with the intriguing subject of happiness. I was not disappointed. I found the book a masterpiece in combining the learnings of social scientific research with the insights of faith.
Myers' meticulous scholarship care fully supports every statement with relevant research. But he does not clog the text with heavy stuff: he devotes the last third of the book to 59 pages of endnotes, 44 pages of bibliography, and 19 pages of index, leaving the main text of some 200 pages to flow smoothly and uninterrupted. The author's probings and illustrations concerning happiness, money, friendship, work, love, and faith are fascinating and touch on our most vital concerns.
Myers begins with a discussion of what constitutes happiness and well-being and then examines their correlates. He demonstrates that wealth does not ensure happiness, although abject poverty can lead to misery. Our attitudes toward money, however, can determine happiness since it is related to both our prior experience and our comparisons with the status of others. Likewise, good health does not guarantee happiness, nor is happiness related to any significant degree with age, gender, parental status, place of residence, race, or educational level.
Well-being is a product of a state of mind. Before examining healthy ways to encourage this state, Myers takes time to debunk unauthentic "mind programming" methods like fire walking, astrology, subliminal tapes, and hypnosis. What are the traits of happy people? Four inner traits that have been linked to psychological well-being by dozens of research studies are: (1) positive self-esteem, (2) a sense of personal control, (3) optimism, and (4) extraversion. He explains each in detail.
Myers also deals with the effects of meaningful work, active leisure, adequate rest (the section on a day of rest has some great material relevant to the Sabbath), supportive friendships, and love and marriage. The section "Who Are the Happily Married?" gives in just seven pages one of the finest recipes for marital happiness that I've come across.
The final chapter reveals how religious faith promotes happiness. Faith offers a supportive fellowship, some thing worth living and dying for, humility in an ultimate acceptance of our finiteness, losing and finding one's life in service for others, and an eternal perspective. All of these are associated with a genuine and abiding joy.
This densely packed book is meant to be savored and not for speed reading. My wife and I read it aloud to each other, a few pages a day over several months, and discussed its meaning for our lives. If I were currently serving as a pastor, I could find material for a sermon series. I highly recommend this book for every pastor who wants to preach on those things that really matter. I found it a privilege to review this book, and I will continue to treasure and use it in my work and personal life.
