City of the Good

Nature, Religion, and the Ancient Search for What Is Right

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Sociology, Marriage & Family, Urban
Cover of the book City of the Good by Michael Mayerfield Bell, Princeton University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Michael Mayerfield Bell ISBN: 9781400887934
Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication: February 13, 2018
Imprint: Princeton University Press Language: English
Author: Michael Mayerfield Bell
ISBN: 9781400887934
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication: February 13, 2018
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Language: English

How we came to seek absolute good in religion and nature—and why that quest often leads us astray

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.

Bell charts the unfolding of this new moral imagination in the rise of Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, Hinduism, Jainism, and many other traditions that emerged with bourgeois life. He follows developments in moral thought, from the religions of the ancient Sumerians, Greeks, and Hebrews to the science and environmentalism of today, along the way visiting with contemporary indigenous people in South Africa, Costa Rica, and the United States. City of the Good urges us to embrace the plurality of our traditions—from the pagan to the bourgeois—and to guard against absolutism and remain open to difference and its endless creativity.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

How we came to seek absolute good in religion and nature—and why that quest often leads us astray

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.

Bell charts the unfolding of this new moral imagination in the rise of Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, Hinduism, Jainism, and many other traditions that emerged with bourgeois life. He follows developments in moral thought, from the religions of the ancient Sumerians, Greeks, and Hebrews to the science and environmentalism of today, along the way visiting with contemporary indigenous people in South Africa, Costa Rica, and the United States. City of the Good urges us to embrace the plurality of our traditions—from the pagan to the bourgeois—and to guard against absolutism and remain open to difference and its endless creativity.

More books from Princeton University Press

Cover of the book Creative Destruction by Michael Mayerfield Bell
Cover of the book Barbershops, Bibles, and BET by Michael Mayerfield Bell
Cover of the book Currency Politics by Michael Mayerfield Bell
Cover of the book Chemical Biomarkers in Aquatic Ecosystems by Michael Mayerfield Bell
Cover of the book Social and Economic Networks by Michael Mayerfield Bell
Cover of the book Saving God by Michael Mayerfield Bell
Cover of the book Digital Dice by Michael Mayerfield Bell
Cover of the book Christian Martyrs under Islam by Michael Mayerfield Bell
Cover of the book Freud, the Reluctant Philosopher by Michael Mayerfield Bell
Cover of the book The Free-Market Innovation Machine by Michael Mayerfield Bell
Cover of the book Szegő's Theorem and Its Descendants by Michael Mayerfield Bell
Cover of the book The Poetess Counts to 100 and Bows Out by Michael Mayerfield Bell
Cover of the book The Scientist's Guide to Writing by Michael Mayerfield Bell
Cover of the book Hegel on Self-Consciousness by Michael Mayerfield Bell
Cover of the book A Modern Legal Ethics by Michael Mayerfield Bell
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy