Spiritual capital and the "good life''

The association among values, norms, roles and social structures is one of the major cornerstones of sociology. Since the publication of Bellah and company's Habits of the Heart ( 1996), more attention has been directed toward moral sociology while Putnam's Bowling Alone ( 2000) has stimulated discussions about social networks and social capital. This article meshes these areas while adding spiritual capital to the mix. This study draws heavily upon the classical work of W. E. B. Du Bois ( Du Bois and Dill 1914) on morals, manners, and social uplift, the more contemporary work of Stark ( 2004) and Greeley ( 1989) on the perception of the supernatural and social behavior as well as Brewer's ( 1979) and Koenig's ( 1997, 2002, 2005) work on spiritual well-being and everyday life.