In his book, William Cavanaugh tries to link theology with the economy we live in today.
Firstly, Cavanaugh argues about greed.
Materialism is a controversial topic amongst Christians, because it symbolizes an unhealthy attachment to money and materialistic things. Because of these attachments, we become detached from the things we buy; meaning that we stop caring about the production process of the products/items. The author explains the difference in detachment within the Christian tradition and detachment within consumerism. People are just buying for the sake of buying: people don’t buy what they need anymore, instead they buy what want.
Cavanaugh speaks of how people don’t work because they’re passionate about their occupation; instead…show more content… (pg 61) He begins explain this by referring to the Fordest and Post-Fordest form of production; he speaks of how businesses, factories et cetera, are exploiting their workers. But people are doing nothing about it. Cavanaugh speaks of capitalism in a postmodernism society and how this results in mass individualism: there variety of the same products being sold, but in different brands and flavours, colours et cetera.
Cavanaugh points out that many religions believe that their religions is the one and only. He also points his beliefs and he believes to be the “One” religion. (pg 76) He does this by referring to the fact that Jesus walked on earth and the controversy of him being reincarnated as well as the being an element to the trinity (Son, Father and Holy Spirit).
Thirdly, Cavanaugh concludes his book by speaking of abundance and scarcity. The economy only exists because of people’s desires for something new. But by fulfilling this need, scarcity increases. People are dying of hunger and extreme deprivation, but their desires aren’t being met. (pg 91) In the book, Cavanaugh discuses the levels of sympathy people have: according to Adam Smith, people only sympathize if they can relate to the