What characterizes the good life? What may we in the modern West claim about ourselves? And, does our way of life make any sense? Here the author of The Existential Jesus surveys today's society and assesses its problems as they relate to meaning, faith, and belief, focusing on the main areas of modern life—work, sport, popular culture, family, friendship, intimacy, shopping, tourism, computers, cars, do-it-yourself renovation, and the retreat into nature. John Carroll also traces how and why the intellectual elites have lost their way and failed to provide a language that might help modern people understand their condition.