The Christian Consumer: Living Faithfully in a Fragile World - Hardcover

Hartman, Laura M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199746427 ISBN 13: 9780199746422

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2011

Synopsis

Be it fair trade coffee or foreign oil, our choices as consumers affect the well-being of humans around the globe, not to mention the natural world and of course ourselves. Consumption is a serious ethical issue, and Christian writers throughout history have weighed in, discussing topics such as affluence and poverty, greed and gluttony, and proper stewardship of resources. These voices are often at odds, however. In this book, Laura M. Hartman formulates a coherent Christian ethic of consumption, imposing order on the debate by dividing it into four imperatives: Christians are to consume in ways that avoid sin, embrace creation, love one's neighbor, and envision the future. An adequate ethics of consumption, she argues, must include all four considerations as tools for discernment, even when they seem to contradict one another. The book includes discussions of Christian practices such as fasting, gratitude, solidarity, gift-giving, Sabbath-keeping, and the Eucharist. Using exemplars from the Christian tradition and practical examples from everyday life, The Christian Consumer offers a thoughtful guide to ethical consumption.

About this title

About the Author

Laura M. Hartman is Assistant Professor of Religion at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois.

Review

"In this book, Hartman formulates a coherent Christian ethic of consumption, imposing order on the debate by dividing it into four imperatives: to consume in ways that avoid sin, to embrace creation, to love one's neighbor, and to envision the future... Using exemplars from the Christian tradition and practical examples from everyday life, this volume offers a thoughtful guide to ethical consumption." --Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology

"Few topics could be of more concern to Christians right now, whether considering the state of our souls or our planet. It's not what you profess that makes you what you are, it's what you do, day in and day out. That's the text for this fine sermon."
--Bill McKibben, author of The Comforting Whirlwind: God, Job, and the Scale of Creation

"By shifting the analysis from consumerism to the act of consumption itself, The Christian Consumer creatively and clearly shows the importance of attention to who Christians become through their experience of consumption. It also suggests strategies for making everyday consumer practices not an abstract problem to be solved, but a matter of an integrated life of faith to be lived."
--Tom Beaudoin, author of Consuming Faith: Integrating Who We Are with What We Buy

"This lovely book brings Christian scholarship into the grocery store aisle, illuminating the moral complexity of everyday choices. Writing in a clear and distinctive voice, Hartman interprets consumption within a variety of Christian perspectives on material life. The result is not a screed against consumerism nor a trivial shopping guide, but rather a very helpful theological conversation that shows how bringing food to the dinner table participates in the drama of Christian life."
--Willis Jenkins, Margaret A. Farley Assistant Professor of Social Ethics, Yale Divinity School

"[The Christian Consumer's] wide range and helpful taxonomy make the book a helpful dialogue partner in our path toward ethical consuming." --TheGospelCoalition.org

"By the end of the book, readers will be challenged in numerous ways to place personal acts of consumption within a reflective, critical, and spiritually informed framework."--CHOICE

"The Christian Consumer will be a welcome addition in this emerging conversation. Further, [Hartman's] writing is consistently accessible, while never shying away from the troubling complications of navigating discipleship in a consumerist context. The Christian Consumer will undoubtedly prove useful both for Christian scholars of consumerism and consumption, as well as for church communities seeking resources for asking the muddy and open-ended questions about the connections between faith and consumption."--Anglican Theological Review

"Being a consumer is no easy task. That Hartman successfully manages to sketch this responsibity without losing sight of a hopeful heHef that consumption can in fact "make the world a better place" is surely one of the prime reasons The Christian Consumer will be a welcome addition in this emerging conversation. Further, her writing is consistently accessible, whfle never shying away from the troubling complications of navigating discipleship in a consumerist context. The Christian Consumer will undoubtedly prove useful both for Christian scholars of consumerism and consumption, as well as for church communities seeking resources for asking the muddy and open-ended questions about the
connections between faith and consumption."--Anglican Theological Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0199746427
• ISBN 13: 9780199746422
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272