Is religion good for human flourishing?

I began my career as a scholar of crime, deviance, and social problems, studying where things went wrong in the world and in people’s lives. Only in recent years have I come to appreciate a whole other way of approaching things, which represents one of the most vibrant and genuinely exciting fields of scholarship right now: that of human flourishing or, as it is sometimes described, of well-being. Just look at the sheer number of books and journals out there on this topic, many of which have appeared in the past four or five years, not to mention all the research centers, programs, and scholarly conferences.

To oversimplify, what conditions or factors allow people to believe that they are living a good life? Or in biblical terms, that they are flourishing like a healthy fig tree or a growing vine? Of course prosperity and health count, as do such factors as civil peace and good government; justice, however we define that flexible word, matters immensely. But there are so many other possible factors, drawn for instance from culture and the arts, just as broadly defined.

Religious life also plays its vital role. Nobody suggests that only religious believers can achieve this kind of good life, that they alone can flourish. But how much of a role does religion play? And what kind of religious ideas or outlook? Do some “work” better than others?