November 01, 2005

Christianity and consumer culture

I just noticed an ad in Sojourners magazine for a conference that's going to take place in Minneapolis this coming April 28 and 29. The deadline for papers is December 15, and I find myself actively considering suggesting one. The conference title, "Christianity in a consumer culture" has also a subtitle, "The consumption of faith, the faith of consumption" that I find intriguing. I don't know anything about the sponsors, but the speakers list (Rodney Clapp and Vincent Miller, among others) is interesting. Maybe all of us who care about these issues could converge on this conference? Posted by hessma at November 1, 2005 06:42 AM
Comments

Hello, Mary. My name is Mark Van Steenwyk; I'm one of the directors of the upcoming conference. We'd love to have you present at the conference.

I met a student of yours the other day--Ryan Torma--at a local gathering of emerging church folk. I believe he told me that you introduced him to Vincent Miller's Consuming Religion. I was excited to hear about your integrative work in theology and media.

The idea for the conference grew out of frustrations I was experiencing a couple years ago as I became increasingly aware of the ways in which American Christianity is enslaved to consumerism (especially low church evangelicalism--which has an ecclesiology of pragmatism). During that time, I read Miller's Consuming Religion. His book was a revelation. After I finished reading his book, I knew that I had to organize a conference in which church leaders and scholars helped each other formulate Christian responses to consumerism.

Posted by: Van S at November 21, 2005 11:57 PM

Hi there! Your site is cool!

Posted by: brandy at May 12, 2006 04:32 AM