This Friday series is based on a paper I wrote for my Systematic Theology 2 class earlier in the year. It was a reaction piece to the book The Good of Affluence , by John R. Schneider and represents my own personal wrestling with the contemporary expression of capitalism: consumer capitalism. In light of the current economic crises and meltdown, I thought I would post this each Friday for the next 6 weeks. Enjoy the repost and I hope it helps challenge you in your thoughts and conclusions on capitalism.

The Series
1. Introduction
2. Is Affluence The Point
3. Consumerism: The End Result of Sin Marked-Capitalism
4. Globalization and the Brown Man’s Burden
5. Globalization and Moral Proximity
6. Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

The recent edition of Adbusters, a postmodern indy magazine devoted to deconstructing how corporations, capitalism, consumerism, the media, and governments create meaning for our Western culture, reveals what Christians are now just beginning to realize: over the last four decades capitalism has created a culture of mindless, meaning-sapped consumers, the results of which are destroying our society and others. In an essay entitled “Redemption,” author Micah White explains, “The fact is that we live in a world that has been structured to produce a society of consumers, and even our inconsequential actions or desires are thereby implicated in the destruction of the physical environment. The ease of consumption, and the nonstop encouragement to consume that we receive, makes it nearly impossible for modernity to attain a detachment from consumption and think differently enough to create viable alternatives.”

In an another essay, entitled “Cool: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of An Attitude,” the magazine explores how corporations have leveraged the insecurities and insatiable desires of a fallen world to milk the capitalistic system for all it’s worth by constructing a culture of cool. Author’s Dick Pountain and David Robins write: “As Thomas Frank explains in his 1997 book, The Conquest of Cool, bit by bit cool ‘became central to the way capitalism understands itself and explains itself to the public.’ Ad agency gurus [then] figured out ‘how to construct cultural machines that transform alienation and despair into consent.’” As a result, “the defining problem of modern industrial society is not injustice but alienation.” Their solution? “Liberate [ourselves] from the corporate mindfuck,” a state of being related to our alienation from our originally created selves thanks to our communal consent to corporately constructed Cool ™.

While this characterization might cause more pietistic Christians to cringe, one thing is clear: the Other is aware of our fallen capitalistic culture and senses we need to redeem what has been lost. Humans were not crafted to mindlessly consume nor find our meaning in Cool ™. Instead, we were created to live abundant lives connected to our Creator. In light of this worldview, how then should we structure modern economic systems? Should we affluent American Christian consumers blush in the face of so much affluence, let alone consumption? Doesn’t capitalism provide the best means for constructing economically prosperous and socially stable societies consistent with God’s original intent for Humans, despite its minor hang-ups? John R. Schneider seeks to reconcile these questions in his book, The Good of Affluence.

In his book, Schneider seeks to explain “the relationship in Christian theology between faith and affluence.” In the end, though, he gives capitalism a pass without seriously engaging the problems of the contemporary version of that Enlightenment economic system: consumer capitalism. This paper will examine capitalism and Schneider’s claims through the Creation-Rebellion-Redemption Story of Christian spirituality to provide a balanced, more biblical understanding of 21st century capitalism and its resulting consumeristic form. While I agree capitalism in its basic rendition is the best economic system for creating economically and socially stable nations, that stability does not come without a price. Adbusters insists, we need to launch a “fantastic curveball into the heart of capitalism that changes everything.” I agree.