How faith, the natural world, and community can provide complementary paths for leading a good life People have long looked to nature and the divine as paths to the good. In this panoramic meditation on the harmonious life, Michael Mayerfeld Bell traces how these two paths came to be seen as separate from human ways, and how many of today's confli

People have long looked to nature and the divine as paths to the good. In this panoramic meditation on the harmonious life, Michael Mayerfeld Bell traces how these two paths came to be seen as separate from human ways, and how many of today's conflicts can be traced back thousands of years to this ancient divide. Taking readers on a spellbinding journey through history and across the globe, Bell begins with the pagan view, which sees nature and the divine as entangled with the human¿and not necessarily good. But the emergence of urban societies gave rise to new moral concerns about the political character of human life. Wealth and inequality grew, and urban people sought to justify their passions. In the face of such concerns, nature and the divine came to be partitioned from the human, and therefore seen to be good¿but they also became absolute and divisive.

"There is much to like about [City of the Good]. It is written for a broad audience and takes on big questions, something more social scientists should attempt. The personal anecdotes create a certain intimacy and lightheartedness, while the historical disquisitions convey real urgency and seriousness. Bell did not spend all this time reading about the world’s religious traditions just for fun. He was searching for answers to questions that matter to him, and to all of us."---Philip S. Gorski, Contemporary Sociology