The Fundamental Human Problem
According to William Cavanaugh, the world we live in doesn’t promote freedom but isolation. There’s nothing “free” about a market that promotes “autonomy” as it’s highest goal. Freedom is found in deep human connection, not in isolation. In his concise book, “Consuming Religion,” he makes four simple points: 1. In our free market society, we are actually not free, but addicted; 2. We severed the connection between production and consumption; 3. In a globalized society, “everything is available but nothing matters”; and 4. Those who live with abundance lack concern for those who live in scarcity.
What I will focus on for the purpose of this post is how Cavanaugh, by identifying the problem of consumerism as a problem of isolation, the author is offering a theological corrective to the Western world’s embedded belief regarding the fundamental human problem. What I will begin to argue is that the consumerism of the free market society both arises out of, while continuing to re-enforce, the theological fallacy that the fundamental human problem is death.
Cavanaugh argues that consumerism is not about buying, but about shopping. It’s not that we are a culture of hoarders—although, my father who owns mini-storage facilities throughout Southern California might suggest otherwise—but a culture of buyers. We dispose of things. We get rid of them so that we can buy something new. Of course, this becomes an addictive habit like gambling or pornography, that if taken all the way, can lead to homelessness, or as Cavanaugh would argue, isolation. He writes, “In the ideology of the free market, freedom is conceived as the absence of interference from others. There are no common ends to which our desires are directed. In the absence of such ends, all that remains is the sheer arbitrary power of one will against the other.”[1]
Cavanaugh does well to point to Augustine to establish a biblical eschatology that interprets human freedom and desire, in order to “enter into particular judgments of what kinds of exchanges are free and what kinds are not.”[2] He further argues with Augustine, “Freedom is being wrapped up in the will of God, who is the condition of human freedom. Being is not autonomous; all being participates in God, the source of being.”[3] Not only this, but all being participates in relationship with others. As Desmond Tutu would say, “I am because we are.” A heroine addict cannot free himself, and therefore, “autonomy” has little to do with freedom.
Where Cavanaugh comes up short, in my estimation, is his lack of discussion on the relationship between death and consumption. One could argue that every human fear finds its origin in the fear of death, and consumerism is basically our attempt to overcome this fear through the practice of avoidance. Every item we purchase is, in one way or another, intended to improve life. In this way, we are constantly trying to separate ourselves from our immanent death. How many billions of dollars are spent every year in the “health and beauty” industry so that we can proclaim to the world, “Look everyone, I’m not dying!?”
As Christians, we transfer this into our biblical imagination, and we offer (perhaps like a product, according to Miller) eternal life for those who surrender themselves to the way of Jesus. Therefore, both shopping at the mall and going to church are not all that different in their promotion of death avoidance. Traditions that choose not to observe Good Friday are perhaps the guiltiest of us all. We sell Christianity as a get-out-of-death-free card. Most evangelical Protestants would agree that Jesus came to save us from death. The embedded belief, then, is that death is our fundamental human problem that God has come to fix. Consumers try to overcome that with shopping, and Christians, with prayer. But neither the Bible, nor the teaching of the Church throughout history, ever claimed that death is our fundamental problem. In fact, death is the portal to new life! A prerequisite!
The Church has always taught us that the fundamental human problem is not death, but isolation.[4] Living in isolation for all eternity is an image of hell, not heaven. This is why John’s Gospel goes to great lengths in the Prologue to remind the readers that first, Jesus was with God in the beginning, before the creation of the cosmos, and then that God came to be with us in order to save us from our isolation from God, self, and all creation. The fundamental problem addressed by the Gospel, therefore, is not death, but eternal isolation.
While Cavanaugh understands that consumerism is problematic because it creates isolation, he misses the underlying problem, namely, that consumerism is our continuously failing attempt to overcome our fear of death. In other words, Cavanaugh seems to be only addressing the symptoms of the problem. The deeper issue is that we have misdiagnosed the fundamental problem that “free market capitalism” seeks to address.
Christians, therefore, ought to be working to shift our understanding of the fundamental human problem and God’s response, as the lens through which we consider both our spending as well as our liturgical practices. Cavanaugh knows this intuitively though he fails to name it as such: we’ve got to get over our addiction to shopping as a way to avoid death; we have to re-establish our connection between the products we buy and the ones who produced them; and we have to be concerned for those who live in scarcity. Cavanaugh’s discussion on scarcity and abundance alludes to the human fear of death, but until we take seriously the fallacy of this misplaced fear, the isolation that comes from consumerism will continue to force it’s way upon the world.
But if Christians see our core problem as isolation, then we have a deeper basis to address the problems of “free market capitalism.”
[1] William T. Cavanaugh, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2008), 2.
[2] Ibid., 2.
[3] Ibid., 8.
[4] Samuel Wells, “’We Are Never Alone’,” Faith and Leadership (blog), Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, February 8, 2009, https://www.faithandleadership.com/samuel-wells-‘we-are-never-alone’ (accessed February 15, 2018).
About the Author
Chris Pritchett
5 responses to “The Fundamental Human Problem”
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Chris,
Ummm….WOW! Your criticism of Cavanaugh left me speechless. Yet, I think you are onto something when you recognize both consumerism and evangelicalism as stemming from the same desire to avoid considering the brevity of life. As you state, death is a prerequisite to genuine life with the Father. Coming to grips with that reality would absolutely undermine the power our cultural consumerism has on us. I think we recognize our ultimate end but are afraid to accept it. So, as a pastor, teacher and preacher in a denomination that prides itself on its intellectualism and is largely made up of white, middle to upper middle class members, how do you communicate the reality of our impending deaths in a way that helps parishioners alter their perspective and way of life?
Chris,
Your insight into this book was eye opening for me. I wish I had read it before I read our book this week. What a great way to look at our consumerism as a way to avoid death. I agree that we have an issue in not seeing our fear of death as one of the biggest drives to consume can cloak the real problem, isolation from God.
Thanks for your post brother.
Jason
Great insights Chris! I loved this part…”Where Cavanaugh comes up short, in my estimation, is his lack of discussion on the relationship between death and consumption. One could argue that every human fear finds its origin in the fear of death, and consumerism is basically our attempt to overcome this fear through the practice of avoidance.” I couldn’t agree more, the fear of death is very common and people are forever trying to avoid the reality of death being unavoidable. That’s why the world needs the hope of Jesus, who overcame death so we don’t have to fear death.
Chris!
This was your strongest post yet, really clear, engaging insights and analysis. Thank you for taking the time to write this, I feel like I understand the book better because of this post. I hear a sermon in here somewhere, preacher 🙂
Nice work, man.
Yes!!! Chris, brilliant. You said, “Living in isolation for all eternity is an image of hell, not heaven.” You cultivated some new ground here. I’m grateful for this gift; I’ll be thinking on this for awhile.