By: Mitch Arbelaez on March 8, 2014
My title may be simply words to one of Madonna’s songs, as she sang about her own personal taste as a material girl. However, her conclusion is quite accusatory as she sings, “Experience has made me rich – And now they’re after me, ‘cause everybody’s…living in a material world.” Her statement implies that living in…
By: Carol McLaughlin on March 8, 2014
Growing up in non-liturgical churches my understanding and comprehension of Lent was filled with indifference. I remember my cousin giving up oatmeal-raisin cookies during Lent. I could not for the life of me understand why he would do such a thing especially since oatmeal-raisin cookies were not my favorite. Maybe he did it because his…
By: Telile Fikru Badecha on March 7, 2014
Starbucks Medium Ethiopia Whole Beans! Starbucks Medium roasted Ethiopia Starbucks coffee is my favorite coffee and I enjoy it every morning. It has the best flavor and aroma of all other coffee brands I have tried. A picture of a coffee pot with a cup on the brown foil packaging reminds me of home. However,…
By: John Woodward on March 7, 2014
On my early trips to Romania, I was captivated by the beauty and otherness of the Orthodox churches I visited. For a protestant, the mosaics, icons, candles and abundance of gold were all breathtaking and totally foreign to me. I found that one could purchase official icons in a number of stores throughout Romania. A…
By: Liz Linssen on March 7, 2014
Cavanaugh’s book, Being Consumed, explains to the reader some of the problems of Consumerism, while offering Christians informed, alternative ways of living. Miller’s book, Consuming Religion, on the other hand, focuses on what excessive consumerism has done to the practices of religion. That is, how the dynamics of consumerism have been brought into the playing…
By: Julie Dodge on March 7, 2014
This week we had the great opportunity to read two, count them, TWO, books. Monday night I went to my book shelf to pull out the two assigned books. But wait! One was missing. Apparently I failed to order it. It was not on the shelf. What to do, what to do? I promptly turned…
By: Michael Badriaki on March 7, 2014
I thought of Ash Wednesday differently during the course of this week’s reading assignments. Miller’s book Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in A Consuming Market, and Cavanaugh book’s, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire; bore the effects of a one-two punch combination. Ash symbolized the nostalgia with which I still think about consumption as…
By: Bill Dobrenen on March 7, 2014
In our reading for this week[1], Vincent J. Miller, Associate Professor of Theology at Georgetown University, writes about consumer culture. Unlike some of our other readings, Miller offers some suggestions/solutions for the Church to consider on how to flourish in the midst of the consumeristic bombardment experienced in the world around us. One of…
By: Ashley Goad on March 6, 2014
While reading through Vincent Miller’s Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture and William Cavanaugh’s Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire, one image continually popped into my head: Don Draper. Don Draper, played by the dapper Jon Hamm, is the central character on the American Movie Channel series Mad Men. The series…
By: Deve Persad on March 6, 2014
Watching the Oscars last weekend I was struck by the number of commercials for Cadillacs. I’m not usually that perceptive, but I wondered aloud, “Why are they showing all these commercials? How many people watching the Oscars would be thinking, I need a car, and that seals it, I’m buying a Cadillac?” Then returning to…
By: rhbaker275 on March 4, 2014
In Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in A Consuming Market, Vincent J. Miller begins with the premise that the culture of the consumer in the market place has established ideals, but more important, the practice of consumer cultural ideologies diminishes and displaces belief as a significant factor in consumer spending habits. Miller states his…
By: rhbaker275 on March 3, 2014
My personal exposure to studies in psychology and more specifically, social psychology is very limited. I have never studied Freud. Understanding why people do what they do often remains a mystery to me. The concepts of an action being neurotic or subscribing neuroses to an action, congers up more a sense of subversive fear than…
By: Miriam Mendez on March 2, 2014
Here is another multiple choice question for you. This question was the million dollar question answered by a young man who was a contestant on the game show, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” So here is your opportunity, not to win a million dollars, but to gain the satisfaction of answering it correctly: Which…
By: Stefania Tarasut on March 2, 2014
Book: The Rebel Sell by Heath/Potter Reading through “The Rebel Sell” over the past few days has stirred in me a million different emotions. Every paragraph seemed to challenge, annoy, convict or put a smile on my face. There are soo many things that I would love to include in this post, but I need…
By: Carol McLaughlin on March 2, 2014
There have been times in our reading when it has been difficult to determine “what” has resonated most strongly. Where do I begin? How do I even express what I am still digesting? (If you read that again it might just make you laugh, but hopefully not cringe!). The books that are impacting me the…
By: Mitch Arbelaez on March 1, 2014
Yes! I am a product of the 80’s. Psychedelic colors, big hair, parachute pants, Members Only jacket, MC Hammer – “You can’t touch this,” break dancing (still got some moves), and of course rock ’n’ roll! We were cool, we were hip, we were the bomb. Parents didn’t get us. They were lame, out of…
By: John Woodward on March 1, 2014
Recently Leonardo DiCaprio did the interview circuit for his new movie “The Wolf of Wall Street,” a movie that depicted a wealthy trader on Wall Street who had a “lust for wealth and the lust for consuming everything around him.” This drove him to extremes of debauchery that make up much of the movie. It…
By: Telile Fikru Badecha on February 28, 2014
The Rebel Sell: How The Counterculture Became Consumer Culture by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter, is informative work on the roles that countercultural rebels played in America using very compelling stories to elucidate their points. The countercultural notion that the authors discuss in this book is new to me and I appreciate the opportunity to…
By: Liz Linssen on February 28, 2014
Throughout the centuries, we have seen movements that have arisen to redress society’s oppression: the French Revolution, Marxism, Communism and so on. Movements that responded to the pain of the hurting masses, that rebelled against the dominating powers in order to “level the playing fields”. In more recent years, we have seen this through the…
By: Michael Badriaki on February 28, 2014
Everyone at some point enjoys the consumption of a particular good, item and commodity. For example, I consume a certain amount of information weekly as I read the different books assigned in my doctoral program. I think that consuming is not the problem in and of itself’, but it’s extremes to which humanity can be…
