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Slavoj Zizek on Christian Conusmerism

May 15th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Absolutely rushed off my feet at work today but managed to read this excellent Zizek quote which was related to Christian Consmerism in an excellent post by Ben Myers in his review of "Rapture Ready!

As Slavoj Žižek has observed, the logic of late capitalism presses towards the commodification of a niche identity for its own sake; the Christian merchandise I buy is not itself the desired commodity, but it is merely an ephemeral signifier of the real commodity, which is my identity as a particular sort of Christian. In this case, the product I am really purchasing is radically non-material, wholly spiritual; I am purchasing religious meaning and belonging, religious “community” (since the merchandise allows me to participate in a specific market niche). Here, any neat separation between my “faith” and my “consumer culture” is simply fictitious. To change the latter simply is to change the former.

Tags: Church · Theology Thoughts · Worship

1 response so far ↓

  • 1 Jim Martin // May 15, 2008 at 6:23 pm

    What a very, very interesting quote. One thing is for sure–I will now have to read the post at the link you cited. Thanks, Liam.

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