Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Beaudoin's first book, Virtual Faith, alerted many readers to the 30-something Catholic's gift for language, appreciation of material culture's spiritual significance and theological acumen. In this book he turns his attention to a topic he confesses he had previously overlooked: the role of economics in the branded world in which young people live, move and have their being. The book begins with a humorous and unsettling account of the author's attempt to find out who, precisely, had made the contents of his clothes closet. Corporations that expended countless sums on building their brands, Beaudoin discovered, are not eager to reveal where, by whom and under what working conditions their products are manufactured. Borrowing from Naomi Klein's No Logo and the spiritual disciplines of Ignatius, this book proposes an "economic spirituality." Beaudoin can be brilliant, as when he retells Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus as a warning for modern consumers. But he can also indulge in flights of postmodern theological abstraction, and a final, somewhat haphazard chapter of relatively practical suggestions bears only a tenuous relationship to his earlier theorizing. Still, Beaudoin has once again put an understudied topic on the Christian agenda, which is more than enough reason to plow through the woolly parts and wrestle with consumerism's challenge to anyone who, like the author, is "trying to become a Christian." (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Two new books address our consumer culture and its relation to religious beliefs, with Beaudoin (theology, Boston Coll., Virtual Faith: The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X) focusing on the practical and Miller (theology, Georgetown Univ.) taking a more intellectual stance. As Beaudoin points out, nobody knows who makes the cola, fish sticks, jeans, or sneakers found in the average American home. In a telling passage, he recounts his efforts to determine where some of his favorite clothes were made, by whom, and under what conditions. The fruitless results highlight the distance between the corporation and the employees who do its work, a distance that encourages appalling exploitation of workers, in stark contrast to the "economic spirituality" of Jesus Christ. To counter such exploitation, Beaudoin suggests a strategy that includes dignity, solidarity, and community, urging readers to take responsibility for their lives and the lives of others through consumer choices and activism. His reflections on these issues within the Christian tradition and his suggestions for developing one's own economic spirituality are not new, but the work may prove useful to lay readers who want to connect their religion with their purchasing decisions. By contrast, Miller is not so much concerned with social justice as he is the deleterious effect of commerce on the essence of religion itself. Throughout this analytical work, Miller cites numerous examples of the transformation of world religions into commodities to be exploited, such as the sale of Tibetan prayer flags for decorative purposes to homeowners ignorant of the meaning of the texts and symbols thereon, and the use of Christian religious imagery and music by popular recording artists purely for effect. Drawing on the scholarly literature of cultural commodification, Miller examines the cause of this phenomenon and what its significance might be for believers, church leaders, and theologians. In doing so, he draws on a diverse range of thinkers and theorists, from Michel Foucault, John Paul II, and Karl Marx to a variety of pop culture figures. Whereas Beaudoin's book is recommended for larger public libraries, Miller's is more appropriate and recommended for academic libraries with collections in the sociology of religion.-Christopher Brennan, SUNY at Brockport (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
