Consuming Religion
Subtitle: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture
By: Vincent J. Miller
Publisher: Continuum
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9780826415318
Copyright date: 2003
Subjects: Consumption (Economics) -- Religious aspects -- Christianity; Christianity and culture
First sentence: [Introduction, pg. 1] This is not a book about religion _against_ consumer culture; it is a book about the fate of religion _in_ consumer culture. [Chapter 1, pg. 15] This book is concerned with the ways in which consumer culture transforms religious belief and practice.
Description: "The most profound problem with consumerism, argues Vincent Miller, is not the consumption of consumer goods, but the ways in which it trains us to treat everything, including religion, as an object of consumption. Consuming Religion surveys almost a century of scholarly literature on consumerism, from the rise of a culture of commodities to the flowering of the commodification of culture, and charts the ways in which religious belief and practice have been transformed by the dominant consumer culture of the West. Befitting a work of theology that takes culture seriously, the range of reference is enormous, from hip-hop and The Lion King to Gallic social theorists such as Henri Lefebvre, Guy Dubord, Pierre Bourdieu, and Michel de Certeau, not to mention a variety of modern contemporary theological movements. Along the way are riffs on the cult of religious celebrity, whether Buddhist or Catholic, male or female."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-250) and index
Table of contents: label: Acknowledgments
title: vii; label: Introduction
title: 1; label: 1. How to Think about Consumer Culture
title: 15; label: 2. The Commodification of Culture
title: 32; label: 3. Consumer Religion
title: 73; label: 4. Desire and the Kingdom of God
title: 107; label: 5. The Politics of Consumption
title: 146; label: 6. Popular Religion in Consumer Culture
title: 164; label: 7. Stewarding Religious Traditions in Consumer Culture
title: 179; label: Conclusion
title: 225; label: Notes
title: 229; label: Index
title: 251