What are human beings created for? How can we experience the well-being made possible in Christ? What does it mean to love God and our neighbor wholly? These questions go to the heart of what it means to live the Christian life. Happiness, Health, and Beauty explores these questions by putting Wesleyan doctrine in conversation with voices from the wider Christian tradition: theologians, philosophers, social critics, scientists, and poets. The guiding themes for this inquiry into the nature of the Christian life are happiness--how we flourish together in the goodness of God; health--the intrinsic connection between bread and bodies in the Eucharist; and beauty--the disposition to benevolence that is the hallmark of our being fully human.

Debra Dean Murphy is Adjunct Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Meredith College and director of Christian education at Fuquay-Varine United Methodist Church, a 1,500-member congregation in suburban Raleigh, North Carolina. She holds a PhD in theological and religious studies from Drew University.