"Jean-Luc Marion once described idolatry as the 'low-water mark of the divine.' What he meant was: it is not something to be dismissed. Idolatry, too, is a sort of revelation. William Cavanaugh's careful, sympathetic exercise in this important book embodies this approach. Akin to Augustine's theologically-inflected ethnography of the late Roman empire, here Cavanaugh 'reads' the rituals of late capitalism in order to discern the devotions of our so-called secular age. But he does so in the spirit of invitation, not denunciation. A wonderful model of public theology written for a wide audience."

Autorentext

William T. Cavanaugh is Professor of Catholic Studies and Director of the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology at DePaul University. His degrees are from Notre Dame, Cambridge, and Duke universities. He is the author and editor of numerous books and articles, including The Myth of Religious Violence (OUP, 2009). He has lectured on six continents, and his work has been published in seventeen languages.

Klappentext

Through deep explorations of nationalism and consumer culture, The Uses of Idolatry presents a sympathetic but critical account of how and why we sacrifice ourselves and others to gods of our own design.

Zusammenfassung
Through deep explorations of nationalism and consumer culture, The Uses of Idolatry presents a sympathetic but critical account of how and why we sacrifice ourselves and others to gods of our own design.

Inhalt

• 1: Max Weber's Polytheism

• 2: Charles Taylor's Naivete

• 3: Idolatry in the Scriptures

• 4: Augustine on Idolatry as Self-Worship

• 5: Marion on Idolatry as a Mirror to the Self

• 6: The Splendid Idolatry of Nationalism

• 7: The Unsplendid Idolatry of Consumerism

• 8: Incarnation and Sacrament

• Index

• Bibliography