Consuming Religion One Bite at a Time
“People now readily engage all of culture, including their religion, as an object for passive consumption, rather than active, tradition-bound engagement.”[1]
Vincent Miller, in Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture, makes a strong case for the origins of consumerism. As a Catholic scholar, Miller also provides an argument for how religion has become simply one more identifier within our chosen lifestyles.
Alienation and Identity
Miller’s argument begins with the suggestion that “consumer ‘culture’ is not merely a particular set of ideologies;… it is primarily a way of relating to beliefs… that renders the ‘content’ of beliefs and values less important.”[2] While it may initially be challenging to fully understand the core of Miller’s argument, we can suggest that, in his mind, no one necessarily chooses to be “consumed” by consumerism. But, due to the way our dominant culture has evolved, we are, essentially, stuck in the rut of a consumerist system. Consumerism emerges from the capitalist economic model, “for the simple and obvious reason that, unless products could be sold in return for money, there would be no profits.”[3] In the commodification of labor, workers are alienated from their effort and creativity. Workers are thus using their time and energy to earn wages, which they must then spend on their needs—“food, shelter, clothing.”[4] No longer are people creating their own products for their own needs; they are now alienated from the creative process in exchange for wages. Devaluing the knowledge, skills, and traditions of craftsmen by transforming them into interchangeable industrial workers helped fuel alienation: “this ‘deskilling’… helped transform the home from a site of domestic production into a place increasingly dependent on mass consumption.”[5]
In a consumerist society, the value of a product is no longer based simply on its essential use, but on the appearance of value. The abstraction of a product or commodity becomes valued for its social constructs to identify markers of a particularly chosen lifestyle. Two current examples of this are the television shows we watch, and the clothes we wear [check out these articles:[6]]. These social locators help bridge the loss of relational locators in understanding our identity. When it no longer becomes possible to place oneself in relation to others through kinship or group membership, social cues that come from the abstraction of commodities substitutes.[7] This social isolation cannot be overstated in terms of consumption, as it is “one advance in the long-standing erosion of traditional markers of identity….As clan, family, profession and other sources of ascribed identity have faded in significance, consumption has become the major means by which people establish, maintain, and communicate their personal and social identities.”[8]
“The American Dream” (built Ford tough!)
The single-family home has become ubiquitous with the definition of prosperity and the American Dream. But this social ideal has had many repercussions. The single-family home has isolated us from one another, including extended family.[9] Devices like cars and central heating, meant to make life better, have insulated us from the natural world. (As an aside—I think about how we obtained water in Kenya, by pumping it from a dry riverbed and hiring local women to carry jerrycans on their heads to our house; it’s difficult to take long showers when you know the work involved in obtaining the water!). More important for our discussion, however, is the single-family home’s “mediation of culture from generation to generation.”[10] Culture and tradition are now passed on from peers and popular culture, rather than an extended family: “the rise of consumer culture profoundly weakens the handing on of cultural and religious traditions between generations.”[11]
Choose your own Adventure Religion
“By exploiting the human desire for meaning and belonging, marketers [were] positioning their products to compete with religion….As people were being trained to find fulfillment in consumption, they were also, in effect, being trained to bring the habits and dispositions of the realm of consumption to more traditional sources of meaning, including religion.”[12] One of 
the markers of consumerism is the value placed on choice. I confess I’m still paralyzed when walking into large supermarkets filled with an entire aisle of toothpaste options. When faced with an array of religious beliefs and practices to choose from, the options are endless. As individuals (rather than communities), we select from a buffet of beliefs. And like finding the right brand of yoga pants, our religious choices become markers to identify us in the social landscape. Icons of various religions have simply become eclectic additions to a home decorating scheme, removed from the tradition, context and creators of origin. Removed from their “traditional moorings—historic creeds and doctrines… from religious community,” our individual religious choices (spirituality) are abstracted and pose little “challenge to the status quo; they… easily conform to the default assumptions and practices of the dominant culture.”[13]
Kingdom of God and community
We recognize the decline of church membership in North America; perhaps this enmeshing of faith into consumerism is partly to blame. “The emphasis on individual agency and religious experience renders sustained commitment to a religious vision extremely difficult. Without the support of a community of shared belief, commitment hinges to a great extent on the willpower of the individual believer.”[14] This is quite discouraging.
Yet I want to resist this notion of co-opted eschatology and promote the reminder that the Kingdom of God is at hand. The Kingdom of God is not equated simply with heaven in the future, but rather the in breaking of the Spirit in the here and now. The status quo religion has produced a sense of fatalism, security, and disappointment.[15] Miller suggests we counter the commodification of religion with re-embedding it within community (and traditions, “the work of community over time”[16]). Identifying with and committing to a particular religious community will continue to be an individual choice (at least for adults) in our culture. But coming together into a community seems to be our best hope against the isolation of individualism and meaninglessness[17] in our consumer culture. As a community committed to one another and common beliefs in the Lordship of Jesus, a church can become producers rather than consumers (and consumed): creating gardens, meals, music, story, and liturgy. Becoming a source of identity and meaning.
[1] Vincent Jude. Miller, Consuming Religion : Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture (New York: Continuum, 2004), 188.
[2] Ibid., 1.
[3] Ibid., 33.
[4] Ibid., 35.
[5] Ibid., 41.
[6] We see this in a recent study of popular television shows mapped in the US to show examples of our current cultural divide: ‘Duck Dynasty’ vs. ‘Modern Family’: 50 Maps of the U.S. Cultural Divide
Another example is women’s workout wear fashion: Psychology of Lululemon: How Fashion Affects Fitness
[7] Miller, 37.
[8] Ibid., 49.
[9] Ibid., 47-48.
[10] Ibid., 52.
[11] Ibid., 53.
[12] Ibid., 88.
[13] Ibid., 91.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid., 131.
[16] Ibid., 213.
[17] Miller would argue that consumerism is not meaningless, but rather it attaches meaning to the pursuit of commodities. I won’t disagree, but find that type of meaning deeply disturbing.
About the Author
Katy Drage Lines
In God’s good Kingdom, some minister like trees, long-standing, rooted in a community. They embody words of Wendell Berry, “stay years if you would know the genius of the place.” Others, however, are called to go. Katy is one of those pilgrims. A global nomad, Katy grew up as a fifth generation Colorado native, attended college & seminary and was ordained in Tennessee, married a guy from Pennsylvania, ministered for ten years in Kenya, worked as a children’s pastor in a small church in Kentucky, and served college students in a university library in Orange County, California. She recently moved to the heart of America, Indianapolis, and has joined the Englewood Christian Church community, serving with them as Pastor of Spiritual Formation. She & her husband Kip, have two delightful boys, a college junior and high school junior.11 responses to “Consuming Religion One Bite at a Time”
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“As individuals (rather than communities), we select from a buffet of beliefs.”
In his book SOUL SEARCHING, Sociologist Christian Smith calls this “moralistic therapeutic deism.” It is the idea that I believe in God, but what I believe about God is based on what makes me feel good about myself.
As Christian leaders, we want people to have a faith that gives them hope, joy, and comfort. Yet, we also serve a Jesus who made fun of the Pharisees and brought a whip to church (and used it).
Yes! Miller actually discusses it similarly, under the heading “The Therapeutic Self”: “Shorn of its disruptive challenge, religion becomes a mere coping mechanism employed to smooth the contradictions of the middle-class status quo” (85)
Great point Katy about water consumption. If we actually knew the labor and effort that went into a product, we might use it more sparingly. I enjoy getting your Africa “snap-shots” of the life you lived there. Sounds fascinating.
I also enjoyed the part about the single family homes and wanted to write about it in my blog but ended up taking it out because it was getting too long. The ripple effects of a single family home into society was interesting to read about. It made me miss the community we used to have based on the need and dependency for one another. Little House on the Prairie scenes come to mind….I bet you saw some more of this interconnected community in Africa than here. What are some of the distinct differences with the culture here compared to Kenya?
Yes, like you, I felt like I could write an entire post about many of the points made. I think (and Miller mentions) that we have to be careful not to fall into the tendency towards nostalgia when looking towards the past (this is something I am apt to do) or other cultures (again, I have a tendency to romanticize other cultures), but to wrestle with the realities of real life in different times/places. (Thinking literarily, “round” not “flat” characters; thinking relationally, “it’s complicated.”)
Re: Turkana interconnectedness– people are all related to each other in one way or another, so many times conversations begin with figuring out who you are, relatively speaking. Guests/strangers are always welcome when approaching a household– I suppose because it’s a desert.
Another enjoyable post Katy. I do think community is vital to counteracting commodification, however this must be real community, warts and all, not the abstract airbrushed idea of a loving, beautiful, homely local church. We must immerse ourselves in the “mess of congregation” (Peterson). This is difficult, long-term work, like farming, but ultimately very rewarding and fulfilling and rich.
Ahhh, Geoff, you’re speaking my language, my friend. Quoting Peterson (Eugene, I assume) and mentioning the mess of community and even throwing in farming. Yes, I’ve seen and lived and wrestled with the very humanness of congregational community. It drives me batty, sometimes I want to beat my head against a wall, dealing with people. In fact, that’s been true of every church I’ve been a part of. Some congregations have lived a positive bent of community better than others, which has allowed me to see that it’s possible (difficult, but possible).
” As a community committed to one another and common beliefs in the Lordship of Jesus, a church can become producers rather than consumers (and consumed): creating gardens, meals, music, story, and liturgy. Becoming a source of identity and meaning.”
This is great, Katy and I agree 100%
My only question might be, what about all those people who actually LIKE being different and not conforming? I have spoken to people who don’t want to go to church precisely because they do want to do their own thing. I guess we can’t force people. Maybe if we show such joy and fulfillment in our lives we’ll appear winsome and can woo them in. I don’t know. What do you think?
“what about all those people who actually LIKE being different and not conforming?”
I would respond by suggesting that one of those people who doesn’t want to conform is ME. I see no reason for everyone in a congregation to be the same, think the same. In fact, I believe that is dangerous. Variety and differences is, I believe, the work of the Holy Spirit, providing different strengths to build the Body. If everyone was an eye, where would the sense of smell be? We need differences.
We should (each of us) continue to be challenged to think and re-think how to be faithful witnesses in our context, and to consider our identity as consumers and producers.
Being a producer and not just a consumer has become such a novel idea. One that is not on the forefront of our minds when many of us conceive the notion of Kingdom of God. Many people will discuss the power of God to give us what we desire and need while negating to talk about being empowered to be servants. Not only is consumerism all around us but it is also accepted and encouraged.
Great post Katy! 🙂
“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” –Mary, producer and life-giver to the Son of God.
Katy, you have done such a good job of exploring Miller’s thoughts here.
Something you said particularly jumps out at me: “No longer are people creating their own products for their own needs; they are now alienated from the creative process in exchange for wages.”
It is exciting to me to see the millennial generation fighting back against this aspect of consumerism. From community gardens to non-profits devoted to building futsal fields in the middle of poverty ridden communities, millennials are finding creative ways to connect “product” to community and income. They creatively curate multiple jobs and activities to create a living and improve the lives of people around them. On the “downside” they are leaving the church in droves because they can’t find the same creativity there. We need to involve them in the renovation of the church!