JOHN PIPER: THE MAKING OF A CHRISTIAN HEDONIST Justin Gerald Taylor, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2015 Chair: Dr. Michael A. G. Haykin This dissertation on noted pastor and author John Piper (1946- ) constitutes an early effort in the field of intellectual biography, tracing four key influences--in roughly chronological order--upon Piper's life and theology. Those with primary influence in Piper's formative years were his parents, William S. H. Piper (1919-2007) and Ruth Mohn Piper (1918-1974), who exhibited a unique combination of joyful fundamentalism. Piper's next major influence was C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), discovered during his undergraduate studies at Wheaton College, who introduced him to romantic rationalism. Piper's first teacher at Fuller Seminary was Daniel P. Fuller (1925- ), a hermeneutics professor who planted the seeds of Christian hedonism and who gave him a love for exegetical biblicism. It was during these seminary days and into his time of doctoral study that Piper discovered Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), whose affectional Calvinism would go on to shape Piper's theology more than anyone else. Piper's three primary venues of ministerial vocation--teaching, preaching, and writing--are all examined to reveal the ways in which each of these influencers played various roles in Piper's development of Christian hedonism and his distinct contribution to a theology of the Christian life. The dissertation concludes with two applications of the foregoing analysis, exploring how Piper uses Scripture and how he appropriates church history for pastoral ends. Also included is a comprehensive bibliography of Piper's published works (1971-2015).

This dissertation is an inductive synthesis and study of the spirituality of Adoniram Judson. It argues that the center of Judson's spirituality was a heavenly-minded, self-denying submission to the sovereign will of God, which was motivated by an affectionate desire to please Christ, by obeying his final command revealed in the sacred Scriptures. Chapter 2 surveys Judson's life and the historical, theological, and spiritual contexts that formed him. Chapter 3 argues that the foundation of Judson's missionary spirituality was the Bible. His evangelical activism and conversionism grew out of his bibliocentrism. Chapter 4 contends for an all-consuming vision of God's sovereignty in Judson's piety. His submission to God's will affected his view of suffering, duty, and self-denial. Judson's response to his love for God was a self-denying asceticism. Chapter 5 demonstrates that Judson's interpretation of life's events was through the lens of eternity. His heavenly-mindedness permeated his vision for living and dying. Moreover, his eager expectancy of Christ's imminent millennial glory stimulated his evangelical activism. Chapter 6 highlights Judson's dominant spiritual motivation from his early days to his last days: to please Christ. Expressed many times in letters, journals, tracts, and sermons, Judson's supreme desire was to please him. Chapter 7 summarizes the research questions and the thesis, and it analyzes the unique features of Judson's spirituality. This chapter proposes other needed areas of research in the life and spirituality of Adoniram Judson, which were beyond the scope of this dissertation.