The Good Life: Ethics and the Pursuit of Happiness

Description

The Dalai Lama once wrote that the object of human existence was to be happy. This sounds extremely glib as happiness in the popular imagination is a feeling and in the words of the song 'the greatest gift that we possess'. On the other hand, von Hugel wrote 'Religion has never made me happy;it's no use shutting your eyes to the fact that the deeper you go, the more alone you will find yourself' This small masterpiece by the late Fr Herbert McCabe of the Dominican order steers a steady courss between these two extremes. We feels instinctively that human beings are designed to enjoy themselves and to be happy and yet we are told that suffering is good for the soul. But in the Catholic tradition the true object of human existence is the vision of God and nothing less than this will ever make us truly happy. But Fr McCabe explores much deeper issues. Is Happiness a pleasure or a pain? You hardly know. Certainly it is not a comfort for comfort spells seciurity and hapiness can take you out of yourself to a degree where all secutiry is left behind. Behind a feeling of exultation, you can sense the flame of incandescent terror. This short book is entirely original and will further enhance McCabe's posthumous reputation.

Herbert McCabe was a Dominican Friar and theologian of outstanding originality who died in 2001. He was deeply influential on philosophers such as Anthony Kenny and Alasdair MacIntyre and poets and writers like Terry Eagleton and Seamus Heaney.

'Brian Davies OP, ...praises it highly and justly.' Theology, Helen Oppenheimer, 01/09/2006 '..his essays on ethics are concise and illuminating, and they creatively pass on the tradition of Aristotle and Aquinas.' * Christian Century * '...engaging and stimulating book.' -- Dom David Foster * Downside Review, The * 'The book glows on all its pages with rigourous argument, honest observation and apposite examples, expressed in brilliantly accurate phrases. One particular virtue is the way McCabe refuses to let an appeal to God short-circuit his arguement from nature' -- Timothy McDermott * Times Literary Supplement *