A new book Life Worth Living explores what it means to live a meaningful and flourishing life.
The Problem
According to a June 2020 study, Americans have never been more unhappy in recent years than they have been in decades. A University of Chicago poll found that only 14% of respondents say they are happy. While alot has changed in three years, it is only relatively lower than in 2018, when only 18% of people said they were happy.
Even without the challenges of the pandemic, it is difficult to know what it means to live a happy and flourishing life.
Possible Solutions
Three Yale theology professors—Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz—attempt to address that difficulty in their new book Life Worth Living: A Guide To What Matters. These three professors teach one of Yale’s most popular humanities classes—Life Worth Living—and bring their insight to answering the question of what it means to live a good life.
“Drawing from the major world religions and from impressively truthful and courageous secular figures, A Life Worth Living is a guide to life’s most pressing question, the one asked of all of us: How are we to live? … providing readers with jumping-off points, road maps, and habits of reflection for figuring out where their lives hold meaning and where things need to change,” says the publisher.
What The Critics Are Saying
“Volf, Croasmun, and McAnnally-Linz say the search for meaning extends beyond a personal quest to bigger inquiries such as who we are as humans and nations. Will we all be better off having deeply thought through what matters in this life, who we are, and what our purpose is in greater scheme of things? McAnnally-Linz says the book is ‘a toolkit for thinking well about life’s most important questions,’” says AP News’ Jeff Rowe.
“Throughout the book, ‘the question’ is never precisely defined but meant to ignite discussions about topics such as worth, value, good and evil, meaning, purpose, beauty, truth, justice, what we owe one another, what the world is and who we are and how we live. That’s kindling for quite a few engaging conversations,” he continues.
Life Worth Living: A Guide To What Matters was published on March 28, 2023, by The Open Field.
