From The Ground Up

The Lenses We Wear - Consumerism

Following on from my last post...

In the 1920's, a man called Edward Bernays became the absolute public relations and advertising guru. He is practically unheard of today, but his role in society's cultural self-perception is mammoth. His uncle was Sigmund Freud, and he used his uncle's understanding of ego and self to change advertising forever.  Prior to him, advertising had primarily focussed on what you need, after him, the emphasis increasingly became about what you want.  The world we use for this is consumerism. It is a form of spiritual amphetamine. 

This has had a massive influence on how the gospel is understood in our churches:

'In a culture context rife with such idolatry (self-love, consumerism), a gospel that promises enriched personhood and divine favour is readily accepted as goodnews, albeit in direct competition with the alternative forms of personal fulfillment.  To place personal salvation at the cutting edge of the gospel is such a setting therefore a clear miscontextualisation.' (David Lowes Watson, Christ All in All, in Church between Gospel & Culture) 

To be honest, I struggle with having a consumerist heart and desire the materialistic  "wants" just as much as the next guy. Like in all of the ages past this particular culture is not an easy place to live out the Christian message. But this is something I am deeply working on in my own life.  It's all about getting closer to the one who calls us to follow him!

The Lenses We Wear - Individualism

Australia has been heavily influenced by the Enlightment. The Enlightment was a cultural philosophy that was becoming popular when Australia was colonised.  Our whole history as Australian "arrivals" has been lived under its shadow.  But like other cultural things, it is hard to see.  

One of the central tenents of this cultural philosophy is individualism or the "what's in it for me." Previous generations and cultures  based their identity and value in terms of community. This is not so for us.  The problem is that this can start to affect our understanding of the Gospel. Now combine individualism with consumerism and we get to see a picture of the societal philosophies in which we operate. It is really important that we realise that this is our lens in which we read Scripture and apply it to our lives.  This lens does affect our understanding as we read Scripture focused as an individual rather than as a community. We know that our Trinity God is all about community. Sure we are individuals who make up this community, but it is in this community that we find our identity. 

"Evangelical doctrines of salvation augment this emphasis. Salvation is defined in terms of the individual's coming to God.  Little is said about salvation as a communal event, of redemption as that which liberates us from ourselves into a new peoplehood.  Preaching often underlies this individualism" Roxburgh, Alan.