Rescuing the Church from Consumerism

Rescuing the Church from Consumerism PDF Author: Mark Clavier
Publisher: SPCK
ISBN: 0281070393
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
Rescuing the Church . . . examines how people are initiated into a consumer culture during childhood and thus drawn into pursuing a vocation as consumers by means of various quasi-sacramental rites and practices. The upshot of this is that the church today is composed primarily of men and women whose lives are situated more within a consumer culture than within a distinctively Christian one. In order for the church to free itself, the author believes it must reclaim a sacramental identity that is grounded in a narrative tradition and realized in real, local worshipping communities.

Rescuing the Church from Consumerism

Rescuing the Church from Consumerism PDF Author: Mark Clavier
Publisher: SPCK
ISBN: 0281070393
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 187

Get Book Here

Book Description
Rescuing the Church . . . examines how people are initiated into a consumer culture during childhood and thus drawn into pursuing a vocation as consumers by means of various quasi-sacramental rites and practices. The upshot of this is that the church today is composed primarily of men and women whose lives are situated more within a consumer culture than within a distinctively Christian one. In order for the church to free itself, the author believes it must reclaim a sacramental identity that is grounded in a narrative tradition and realized in real, local worshipping communities.

On Consumer Culture, Identity, The Church and the Rhetorics of Delight

On Consumer Culture, Identity, The Church and the Rhetorics of Delight PDF Author: Mark Clavier
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN: 1501330918
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
The Reading Augustine series presents short, engaging books offering personal readings of St. Augustine of Hippo's contributions to western philosophical, literary, and religious life. Mark Clavier's On Consumer Culture, Identity, The Church and the Rhetorics of Delight draws on Augustine of Hippo to provide a theological explanation for the success of marketing and consumer culture. Augustine's thought, rooted in rhetorical theory, presents a brilliant understanding of the experiences of damnation and salvation that takes seriously the often hidden psychology of human motivation. Clavier examines how Augustine's keen insight into the power of delight over personal notions of freedom and self-identity can be used to shed light on how the constant lure of promised happiness shapes our identities as consumers. From Augustine's perspective, it is only by addressing the sources of delight within consumerism and by rediscovering the wellsprings of God's delight that we can effectively challenge consumer culture. To an age awash with commercial rhetoric, the fifth-century Bishop of Hippo offers a theological rhetoric that is surprisingly contemporary and insightful.

Buying God

Buying God PDF Author: Eve Poole
Publisher: Church Publishing
ISBN: 1640652507
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Deeply theological review of our habits of relationship with money Eve Poole offers us a book at once deeply theological and imminently practical. She invites us into a conversation about theology—the ways in which we attempt to understand God—and their various implications. She then shifts the conversation to consumerism, raising questions along the way as to how God might view the practice—and how we might better understand our place as Christians within that system. Drawing on the Church’s rich traditions of Social Liturgy, Buying God calls on the Christian community to renew its confidence and strength in proclaiming this good news. Uniting theoretical work on theology, capitalism, and consumerism with a scheme of detailed practical action, the book explores how we can wean ourselves off the material and on to the eternal, through prayer, example, and vibrant social action. “Knowledgeable and accessible, as adept at exploring economics as at delineating theological method, Buying God offers a steady hand through the demands of global capitalism and the seductions of human desire. Eve Poole offers an example of how theology is always politics, and always devotional–and, at its best, both at the same time.” Samuel Wells, Vicar of St Martin-i n- the-Fields.

Sacred Consumption

Sacred Consumption PDF Author: Peter Mundey
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498591620
Category : Christianity and culture
Languages : en
Pages : 163

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Book Description
This book explores the quasi-religious nature of consumerism and how American Christianity interacts with consumerism. The author uses mixed methods to unpack the nexus between the Christian faith and consumption and how habitual discretionary consumption functions as a pseudo-faith in America.

Consuming Religion

Consuming Religion PDF Author: Vincent J. Miller
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0826417493
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Terrence W. Tilley, University of Dayton.

Shopping for Meaningful Lives

Shopping for Meaningful Lives PDF Author: Bruce P. Rittenhouse
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1621896048
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Consumerism is a problem. It deforms individual character, our sense of obligation to one another, and our concern for future generations and the environment. Even in the aftermath of the worst economic downturn in seventy years, it remains a defining feature of Western cultures. But, beyond this assessment, neither Christian theologians and ethicists nor secular economists and sociologists have understood what drives consumerism or what can be done to counteract it. This is the problem that Bruce P. Rittenhouse solves in Shopping for Meaningful Lives. Dr. Rittenhouse analyzes economic, sociological, and psychological evidence to prove that consumers behave differently than the current theories predict. Dr. Rittenhouse shows that consumerism functions as a religion. It provides a means of assurance that an individual life is meaningful. Because we need this assurance to live out our everyday lives, consumerism takes precedence over whatever other values a person professes--unless a person can adopt a different way to secure the meaning of his or her life. This interpretation explains how consumers actually behave. From the perspective of Christian theology, consumerism is a wrong answer to a problem of human existence that should be answered by faith in Christ.

Brand Jesus

Brand Jesus PDF Author: Tyler Wigg Stevenson
Publisher: Church Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 1596271744
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
In this provocative book, the author argues that American Christianity, especially evangelicalism, has been corrupted by the dominance of consumerism in modern life. The church's mostly uncritical adoption of this secular condition has resulted in an idolatrous morphing of the message of Christ into just another brand. With Brand Jesus, Wigg Stevenson names the growing concern felt by many Christians at the commodification of their faith. Using Paul's letter to the Romans as a starting point, Wigg Stevenson 'reads' the letter to today's church, speaking to our consumerist situation through the parallels with Paul's Rome. Though rooted unapologetically in a love for the church, Brand Jesus does not shy away from provocative claims about the melding of Christian faith and consumer ideals; the rise of market-driven theology; the blurring boundaries between the law and religion; and other topics. Wigg Stevenson describes the current situation of both church and society and issues a challenge to it: When faith is a product for consumption, how can the church be faithful to Christ as living Lord, instead of as Brand Jesus?

Christ and Consumerism

Christ and Consumerism PDF Author: Thorsten Moritz
Publisher: Paternoster Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Consumerism is not merely a way of life -- it is increasingly recognized as a framework through which people find their identity and sense of belonging in society. Christians are called to be "salt and light" in society. If we are to take this command seriously and be zealous for the reputation of God's character in our day, we must test the "spirit of the age" and analyze the forces and ideologies that shape our culture. If we don't, there is a danger that we will become so accustomed to our consumerist culture that it, rather than the convictions at the heart of what God has called us to be, will shape our lives. Issues regarding consumerism are considered from biblical, ethical, sociological and economic viewpoints and suggestions offered about how Christians can positively respond to the prevailing ethic today.

Following Christ in a Consumer Society

Following Christ in a Consumer Society PDF Author: Kavanaugh, John F.
Publisher: Orbis Books
ISBN: 1608335283
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
In an era of fraud, corruption, and the relentless celebration of image over substance, the message of this perennial best-seller is more timely than ever. Following Christ in a Consumer Society offers a penetrating critique of the culture of consumerism, contrasted with the personalism of the Gospel. Addressing a soul-destroying culture in which ""having more"" has become the only measure of value, Kavanaugh reminds us of the values that truly make us human. Through the counter-cultural message of the Gospel, his book presents a diagnosis of our social ills while at the same time providing a guide back to wholeness, sanity, and spiritual health.

Consuming Jesus

Consuming Jesus PDF Author: Paul Louis Metzger
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802830684
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Foreword by Donald MillerAfterword by John M. PerkinsMany Americans think that race problems are a thing of the past because we no longer live under the Jim Crow laws that once sustained overt structures of segregation. Unfortunately, says Paul Louis Metzger, today we live under an updated version of segregation, through the subtle power of unchallenged norms of consumer preference.Consumerism affects and infects the church, reinforcing race and class divisions in society. Intentionally or unintentionally, many churches have set up structures of church growth that foster segregation, such as appealing to consumer appetites. Metzger here argues that the evangelical Christian church needs to admit this fault and intentionally move away from race, class, and consumer segregation.Challenging the consumerism that fosters ethnic and economic divisions and distorts evangelical Christianity, Consuming Jesus puts forth a theologically grounded call to restructure the church's passions and practices, transforming the evangelical imagination around a nobler, all-consuming vision of the Christian faith.Visit the Consuming Jesus blog created by the The Institute for the Theology of Culture: New Wine, New Wineskins at: http: //consumingjesus.org/