consumerism destroys spirituality

desire, detachment, DVD players, and the way to heaven

It’s not a controversial statement to say that the U.S. is a consumeristic culture. Since WWII, the commitment to bigger, better, faster, and more has been a fundamental building block of the American economy.

In the 1950s, the “consumer was praised as a patriotic citizen… contributing to the ultimate success of the American way of life.”¹ I still remember, after 9/11, President George W. Bush encouraging American citizens to take the stimulus checks we would be receiving in the mail and do our patriotic duty with them… by buying DVD players. In many ways, loving your country has been equated to treating yourself.

As a result, consumption has become an American virtue. Consumer spending makes up 70% of the American economy, totaling $13 trillion per year.² On average, we each throw away over 68 pounds of clothing per year.³ According to the Wall Street Journal, Americans spend about $1.2 trillion a year on non-essential items.⁴ Consumerism forms us to be a certain kind of human being, de-forming us away from Christ as it undermines a sacramental vision of self, the world, and God.

malign detachment

We often think of consumerism as greed, but this is not the case. Theologian William Cavanaugh argues that, rather than lead us to hoard and obsess over our material possessions, consumerism actually detaches us from physical things.

What really characterizes consumer culture is not attachment to things but detachment. People do not hoard money; they spend it. People do not cling to things; they discard them and buy other things.… Our relationships with products tend to be short-lived: rather than hoarding treasured objects, consumers are characterized by a constant dissatisfaction with material goods. This 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.⁵

not a good picture of consumerism

He calls consumerism a “spiritual disposition,” a religious outlook that leads us to see things from a particular point of view. It is “a type of spirituality, even if [we] do not recognize it as such.”⁶ Given the consumeristic foundation on which our economy is built, it “would grind to a halt if we ever looked at our stuff and simply declared, ‘It is enough. I am happy with what I have.’”⁷ Consumerism crushes contentment under the weight of insatiable desire. He summarizes the spirituality of consumerism this way:

In consumer culture, dissatisfaction and satisfaction cease to be opposites, for pleasure is not so much in the possession of things as in their pursuit. There is pleasure in the pursuit of novelty, and the pleasure resides not so much in having as in wanting. Once we have obtained an item, it brings desire to a temporary halt, and the item loses some of its appeal. Possession kills desire; familiarity breeds contempt. That is why shopping, not buying itself, is the heart of consumerism. The consumerist spirit is a restless spirit, typified by detachment, because desire must be constantly kept on the move.⁸

We cannot stay attached to things in consumer culture. The planned obsolescence of the products we buy, and the billions of dollars spent on marketing meant to stoke the flames of desire, prevent it.

In many ways, modern consumer-driven capitalism is a novel way to dress up the same old heresy of Gnosticism. Consumerism develops a malign detachment from physical things, reducing humans made in God’s image to addicts incapable of escaping the need—not for more—but for the new. It is a significant contributing factor to our orientation to excarnation.

the goodness (and gift-ness) of created things

Consumerism trains us to see created things as disposable, unimportant. Because of this, Christianity is completely incompatible with consumerism. It may be true that

much of what passes for Christianity in our culture today is addressed to fulfilling the spiritual needs of individual consumers of religion. Many kinds of religion—or more commonly, “spirituality”—are largely about self-help, using God to cope with the stresses of modern life.⁹

However, that false version of the faith fails to take into account the fact that the goodness of created things is not found in the dopamine hit I get when I unbox a new computer or open the latest Amazon package. The goodness of created things comes in the fact that, as the gift of the Creator, all things point to God. Created things are good because they are sacramental!

not where goodness comes from

People and things are united in one great web of being, flowing from and returning to their Creator. The Christian view elevates the dignity of things by seeing them as participating in the being of God; but that view simultaneously causes us to look through and beyond things to their Creator.¹⁰

We need to find ways to be un-formed from consumeristic culture and re-formed in the sacramental vision of the goodness (and gift-ness) of all created things.

A sacramental view of the world sees all things as part of God’s good creation, potential signs of the glory of God; things become less disposable, more filled with meaning. At the same time, a sacramental view sees things only as signs whose meaning is only completely fulfilled if they promote the good of communion with God and with other people.¹¹

In St. Augustine’s language, we only “use” created things because they can’t make us happy. Rather they “are to be used to help us on our way to happiness, providing us… with crutches and props for reaching the things that will make us happy.”¹² The things of this world are like crutches that help us on the journey to that alone which can satisfy: God Himself. We use the things of this world so that we can grow to become the kind of people who enjoy God and God alone.

the things of this world

After all, consumerism leads to dissatisfaction and endless thirsting. But God has offered Himself as the One who satisfies our every desire. And in the bread and the cup, Christ has offered us His very Self for our consumption. The Lord’s Supper is not a meal that we can consume and then move on from to consume something else. In the Eucharist, we taste Christ Himself and become one with Him:

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. (1 Cor. 10:16-17)

In eating and drinking, we participate in Christ Himself and become one with Him as His Body. Thus, created things—bread and wine—fulfill their true purpose. Mysteriously, through these simple, physical things, we are made partakers of God Himself.

The physical is not—and ought not to be seen by us as—disposable. The physical is the means in this world through which we enter into the very heavens, the manner in which we become one with God in Christ.

I’d love to hear from you! How has consumerism affected your spiritual life? What does the idea that God lets us consume Him mean to you? Leave a comment below!

1. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tupperware-consumer/

2. https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0512/the-spending-habits-of-americans.aspx

3. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/closet-cast-offs-clogging_b_554400)

4. https://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/04/23/number-of-the-week-americans-buy-more-stuff-they-dont-need/

5. William Cavanaugh, Being Consumed, p. 34-35 (my emphasis).

6. Ibid, 37.

7. Ibid, 46-7.

8. Ibid, 47.

9. Ibid, 54.

10. Ibid, 49-50.

11. Ibid, 58.

12. St. Augustine, Teaching Christianity, I.3.3.