City of the Good: Nature, Religion, and the Ancient Search for What Is Right by

Description: City of the Good by Michael Mayerfield Bell 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 todays confli FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description 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 todays 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. Back Cover "This is a superb work of scholarship and wise insight. Bell asks important questions for this troubled age: How shall we live? Where can we find truth? How can we best steward the world for all its inhabitants?" --Jules Pretty, author of The Edge of Extinction: Travels with Enduring People in Vanishing Lands " City of the Good is an ambitious effort to tell the history of the interconnections between religion, nature, and community. This is an important book with big ideas, fresh perspectives, and a broad sweep." --Colin Jerolmack, author of The Global Pigeon "An innovative and empathetic depiction of the worlds great faiths as authoritative fairy tales. Blending personal exploration with textual synthesis and social critique, Michael Mayerfeld Bell offers a compellingly provocative and highly readable discourse on the certitudes that too often divide us and too seldom enhance understanding. He shows how our differences can inspire affection for the diverse mystiques that enrich all human communities." --David Lowenthal, author of The Past Is a Foreign Country " City of the Good provides a chronologically and geographically wide-ranging romp through unusually diverse religious phenomena, advancing a dramatically innovative analysis of the ethical dimensions of our relationship with nature. It is accessible, interdisciplinary, provocative, evocative, and even entertaining. A must-read for anyone interested in the religion/nature nexus." --Bron Taylor, author of Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future and editor of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture Author Biography Michael Mayerfeld Bell is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of WisconsinMadison, where he is also a faculty associate in religious studies, environmental studies, and agroecology. His many books include the award-winning Childerley: Nature and Morality in a Country Village and, Farming for Us All: Practical Agriculture and the Cultivation of Sustainability. Table of Contents Preface: On Losing Your Children in the Vatican ixAcknowledgments xiii1 The Conundrum of the Absolute 1The Pagan 172 Nature Before Nature 193 The Natural Conscience 474 Pagan Monotheism and the Two Evils 77The Bourgeois 1075 Why Jesus Never Talked about Farming 1096 Great Departures 1487 Electrum Faiths 180The Good 2178 Nonpolitical Politics 2199 Awesome Coolness 23710 The Jewel of Truth 259Notes 279References 311Index 325 Review "[City of the Good] proffers much information, insight, and wisdom." * Choice *"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 worlds 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 Review Quote "This is a superb work of scholarship and wise insight. Bell asks important questions for this troubled age: How shall we live? Where can we find truth? How can we best steward the world for all its inhabitants?" --Jules Pretty, author of The Edge of Extinction: Travels with Enduring People in Vanishing Lands Details ISBN0691165092 Author Michael Mayerfield Bell Publisher Princeton University Press Year 2018 ISBN-10 0691165092 ISBN-13 9780691165097 Format Hardcover Imprint Princeton University Press Place of Publication New Jersey Country of Publication United States Media Book Subtitle Nature, Religion, and the Ancient Search for What Is Right Pages 360 Publication Date 2018-02-13 Language English Translated from English DEWEY 201.77 UK Release Date 2018-02-13 NZ Release Date 2018-02-13 US Release Date 2018-02-13 Audience Tertiary & Higher Education Alternative 9780691202914 AU Release Date 2018-04-22 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:161688869;

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