Being Consumed: Economics And Christian Desire, By William T. Cavanaugh

Economics has a vital function in our everyday existence; even so, many of us live by rules governed to us by the secular world without expressing reservations about what we might sense to be undesirable. William T. Cavanaugh, the author of the book called Being consumed: economics and Christian desire, invites us to reflect on our current economic realities by asking questions that are not confined to the traditional way of addressing the issue of economics. He attends to points such as the free market economy, consumerism, globalization and scarcity and advocates positive Christian responses and applications to the concerns he raises. He focuses our attention on the worldly, restless way of ‘being’, which is nurtured by human ‘desires’ that
This is easily achieved because of the Western societies desire to want too much. Consumerism is not just about having more, and Cavanaugh explains that the desire to shop is characterised by dissatisfaction with what one already has and the desire to want something new. He suggests that ‘the heart of consumerism’ lies in the act of shopping rather than in the need for the product itself (Cavanaugh 2008:35). He also reasons that materialism is more about the individuals’ way of pursuing meaning and identity, than an absolute rejection of spirituality for material belongings. The author additionally points out the consumers’ disconnection to the ‘production’ and ‘producers’ of products and stresses the importance of the Christians’ part in trying to find the answer to the origin of the goods they purchase. He explains, by using the example of the Eucharist, that we can be reconditioned from detachment and build relationships with each other in the economic market, through the union with the ‘body of Christ’. Cavanaugh (2008:55) adds that, “becoming the body of Christ also entails that we must become food for others”. In principle a recommendation is made for a more Christ like economy directed by one’s love for God and of one’s
He demonstrates how the pursuit for self-gain and the unsatisfied appetite for consumption brings about economic instability and wrongdoing. He suggests that society has become indifferent to suffering because they have distanced themselves from the humanness of the labour force that provides goods and services. The content of his book helps the reader to identify with his or her own recognition and confession to becoming depersonalised from human relationships in our economic