{"id":16481,"date":"2018-02-15T12:31:15","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T20:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=16481"},"modified":"2018-02-15T12:31:15","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T20:31:15","slug":"searching-kayak-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/searching-kayak-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Searching Kayak.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my simple joys in life, after the kids are in bed and my wife is reading or watching one of \u201cher\u201d shows, is to go online and make travel plans. To research airfare and stopovers in foreign cities. To read about overland bus travel or the reliability of a railroad system. This is what Elizabeth Dunn writes about in her book \u201cHappy Money\u201d, where she describes the French verb se r\u00e9jouir<\/em> which is used to \u201ccapture the experience of deriving pleasure in the present from anticipating the future.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

In a study that was published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life[2]<\/a>, there were findings that showed that when it comes to vacations or travels, the largest boost in happiness comes from the act of planning the vacation, or researching the trip, or simply dreaming about the time away (even more than the trip itself). For me, this time of after-hours reading illustrates the kind of desire that I have, especially for something that is new or exciting or different.<\/p>\n

In a sense, I am the kind of consumer that William T. Cavanaugh is describing in his excellent book Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire<\/em>. In this slender, four chapter volume, the author is exploring the connections between free-market economics with Christian theology, as well as the ethical and practical outcomes of this nexus.<\/p>\n

He begins the book by asking the simple, yet deceptively complex question, \u201cwhen is a market \u2018free\u2019?\u201d[3]<\/a> Rather than spending his time getting caught in the tar-pit of the classic battle between people like Milton Friedman and Karl Marx, Cavanaugh moves the discussion in a different direction. He relies on St. Augustine to deconstruct the very idea of something being \u201cfree\u201d or experiencing \u201cfreedom\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rather than being contented with a \u201cnegative freedom\u201d, where we are only talking about a lack of outside interference, Cavanaugh makes the case for a more full understanding of what is really free. He writes, \u201cthe key to true freedom is not just following whatever desires we happen to have, but cultivating the right desires.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

This is where Augustine comes in. For Cavanaugh, Augustine\u2019s view of freedom is \u201cnot simply a negative freedom from<\/em>, but a freedom for<\/em>, a capacity to achieve certain worthwhile goals. All of those goals are taken up into the one overriding telos<\/em> of human life, the return to God.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

He offers various examples of what this teleological freedom would look like. \u00a0In production, manufacturing, marketing, economic policies and even personal shopping habits. Cavanaugh is clearly in conversation with authors like Vincent J. Miller, as he repeatedly cites examples from Consuming Religion<\/em> to help bolster his point.<\/p>\n

Cavanaugh is Roman Catholic and his faith perspective comes through in this book. Not only with the way that he ends by talking about the Eucharist, but also throughout the book, in the way that he walks the line between the materiality and physical goodness of creation, along with a conviction that the purposes of God, or the telos<\/em> of human life, is bigger than just these \u201cthings\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his review, Eric G. Flett writes, \u201cthe usefulness of the book would have been significantly increased if this concept (the ends of telos<\/em> of human life) were developed as thoroughly as those involving the dynamics of consumer culture in Chapter 2.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

And in the Christian Century<\/em> magazine, David Miller writes, \u201cthe book has some limita\u00adtions. Structurally, the four chapters at times seem like unrelated essays. The main contours and arguments are well positioned in the introduction, but the book ends abruptly with the final chap\u00adter.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

Even with these critiques, which wanted more from this book, there is plenty here to chew on and digest.<\/p>\n

Returning to my opening reflection on my late-night travel planning, I am thinking about it through the lens of this book. Maybe, it isn\u2019t just that I desire to buy plane tickets, but also that I have a kind of disordered love, or dissatisfaction with \u201cnormal life\u201d. Cavanaugh says, \u201cThis dissatisfaction is what produces the restless pursuit of satisfaction in the form of something new. Consumerism is not so much about having more as it is about having something else; that\u2019s why it is not simply buying<\/em> but shopping<\/em> that is the heart of consumerism.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

The good news is, that according to the Bible, the material world and all of creation is really \u201cgood\u201d. As Christians, we affirm this goodness and also seek to live in the world as God\u2019s people. According to Cavannaugh, \u201cwe are passionate, desiring creatures, and this is good\u2026. We desire because we are alive. Created things, however, though essentially good, always fail fully to satisfy because they are not ultimate.\u201d[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

And this is what brings us to one of St. Augustine\u2019s most famous lines, which is really a prayer. He writes, \u201cyou have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.\u201d[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps we all have restless hearts, as Augustine describes. Perhaps our hearts lead us to be dissatisfied and to seek after the new or different as Cavanaugh claims. Perhaps my own searching for travel information is really part of a larger searching.<\/p>\n

The human project, as it comes across in this book, points us toward the end, the telos<\/em>, the final home that we have with God. It asks the reader to consider more closely not only our own habits and desires, but also the ways we think about the economy around us and how we participate knowingly or unknowingly in systems that are not finally free. This book is a step away from “negative freedom” and toward a more full understanding of that word.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton,\u00a0Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Simon&Schuster, 2013), 80.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Jeroen Nawijn et al., \u201cVacationers Happier, but Most not Happier After a Holiday,\u201d\u00a0Applied Research in Quality of Life<\/em>\u00a05, no. 1 (March 2010): 35-47,\u00a0https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007%2Fs11482-009-9091-9<\/a>(accessed February 15, 2018).<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> William T. Cavanaugh,\u00a0Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire<\/em>\u00a0(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 2.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> William T. Cavanaugh,\u00a0Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire<\/em>\u00a0(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 11.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> William T. Cavanaugh,\u00a0Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire<\/em>\u00a0(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 7-8.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Eric G. Flett, review of\u00a0Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire<\/em>, by William T. Cavanaugh,\u00a0Cultural Encounters<\/em>\u00a07, no. 2 (January 1, 2001): 97,\u00a0http:\/\/web.b.ebscohost.com.georgefox.idm.oclc.org\/ehost\/pdfviewer\/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=48e7720e-07e2-48a3-8a98-11507c785b45%40sessionmgr101<\/a>\u00a0(accessed February 15, 2018).<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> David W. Miller, review of\u00a0Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire<\/em>, by William T. Cavanaugh,\u00a0The Christian Century<\/em>, April 7, 2009, 48,\u00a0https:\/\/www.christiancentury.org\/reviews\/2009-04\/being-consumed-economics-and-christian-desire<\/a>\u00a0(accessed February 15, 2018).<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> William T. Cavanaugh,\u00a0Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire<\/em>\u00a0(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 35.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> William T. Cavanaugh,\u00a0Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire<\/em>\u00a0(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 49.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Saint Augustine,\u00a0Confessions<\/em>\u00a0(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 3.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my simple joys in life, after the kids are in bed and my wife is reading or watching one of \u201cher\u201d shows, is to go online and make travel plans. To research airfare and stopovers in foreign cities. To read about overland bus travel or the reliability of a railroad system. This is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64],"class_list":["post-16481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cavanaugh","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16482,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16481\/revisions\/16482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}