Reviews, Interviews, News, Commentaries, Excerpts, My Top 5 Books, Wilson's Bookmarks, Book AwardsMy Top 5 Books on Consumerism
No Logo
Naomi Klein (Picador)
Klein analyzes the economic history that has yielded an ascendant corporatism, as well as the real effects of consumerism on global workers. It is necessary reading, as demanding as it is rewarding, even for readers who disagree with her grounding in Marxist thought.
Lead Us into Temptation: The Triumph of American Materialism
James B. Twitchell (Columbia University Press)
While Twitchell, a former professor of literature and advertising, has overly optimistic conclusions, he offers an unparalleled diagnosis of consumerism as the primary meaning-making practice in Western culture.
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
Douglas Coupland (St. Martin's Griffin)
Coupland's novel about (arguably) the first consumerist generation, whose name his book helped popularize, offers a vivid account of the historical dislocation on which consumerism depends. Read this to better understand the cultural soil that nourishes it.
Consuming Religion: Religious Belief and Practice in a Consumer Culture
Vincent J. Miller (Continuum)
The Roman Catholic theologian offers a sophisticated analysis that puts Christian theology, sociology, and critical theory into dialogue with contemporary consumer practices. Especially suited for academic settings.
The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity
Skye Jethani (Zondervan)
Jethani, an incisive thinker, offers a creative critique of contemporary church practices. Especially valuable for an evangelical audience, which may cringe at the reflection in the mirror this book holds up.
Copyright © 2011 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere:
No Logo, Lead Us Into Temptation, Generation X, Consuming Religion, and The Divine Commodity are available from Barnes and Noble, Christianbook.com, and other retailers.
Previous Top 5 lists have featuredyoung adults, TV & Movies, hell, heaven, technology, forgiveness, dating, poetry, C.S. Lewis, thehistorical Jesus, family ministry, the problem of evil, biographies of theologians, orphans, prayer, doubt, community, sports, and parenting.
Christianity Today has more music, movies, books, and other media reviews.
Sidelining the Stigma of Mental Illness
Starting a Dialogue with Hip-Hop
The Latest in Movie News, June 17, 2013
It's the Thoughts That Count
(on articles open to the public, you must at least register for a free account).
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Newsletters
Google
Comments
Displaying 1–3 of 11 comments
See all comments
A Hermit
Let's add some more to the New Year's reading list: E. F. Schumacher's 'Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered' and Hazel Henderson's 'Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy'- neither is about 'socialism'.
Mark
When and if cooler heads prevail...I suggest you all read C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book three, chapter three. Just for good measure re-read Romans 13 over and over and over...until you understand it. YBIC Mark
E Harris
So... everything should be free. People shouldn't take more than they need. There should be no resistance mounted against thieves who do take more than they produce. The motivation to produce and invent more, is pure charity. We are all to live as one happy family without borders... How does that work, exactly? Has it even been done before on a scale that can even be observed? It's FAILED every time it's tried... because it simply doesn't work. God did not authorize a re-distributionist system (based on envy), God DID condone private property and profit - in the old and new testaments, God also condones charity - for those who freely desire to give, there will always be disparity ('the poor you have with you always')... I fail to see just how communism is advocated as a "just system"... unless you mean, take the money out of everyone's hands: and let everyone starve equally?