Cavanaugh addresses such topics as free market economy, consumerism, globalization, and economic scarcity. The point of this book is not only to point out what is wrong with certain economic practices of today but also to recommend a Christian alternative. Cavanaugh aims to share a Christian perspective that uses Christian resources for the purpose of living out a different vision of economic life based on the Gospel.
Cavanaugh uses the Eucharist, the church catholic, the writings of Augustine, and the life of Christ to back his argument and prove that what he is proposing in the book is necessary and beneficial.
The first chapter “Freedom and Unfreedom” addresses the issue of the modern “free market” and its flawed view of freedom; Cavanaugh …show more content…
Cavanaugh refers to a number of definitions of globalization, one of which is that globalization is a view of the world that usually ignores the interests and concerns of the local and the individual. According to this view, different cultures are disappearing and relationships have become emotionless for more efficient and profitable economic deals. An individual is able to travel from one area to another and still eat the same food, buy the same clothes, or even stay in the same hotel. Cavanaugh argues that the movement of large corporations into other cultures has had an effect on that culture by absorbing it into the universal. These cultures are losing their own individual differences and are becoming one universal culture created by the corporations. This also means that small communities are no longer treating each other as “brothers and sisters,” because these corporations are moving in and disrupting the communities’ close bonds with one another. Horsley (2009:126) says that people lose a sense of responsibility for each other when they no longer consider themselves a
Cavanaugh uses the Eucharist, the church catholic, the writings of Augustine, and the life of Christ to back his argument and prove that what he is proposing in the book is necessary and beneficial.
The first chapter “Freedom and Unfreedom” addresses the issue of the modern “free market” and its flawed view of freedom; Cavanaugh …show more content…
Cavanaugh refers to a number of definitions of globalization, one of which is that globalization is a view of the world that usually ignores the interests and concerns of the local and the individual. According to this view, different cultures are disappearing and relationships have become emotionless for more efficient and profitable economic deals. An individual is able to travel from one area to another and still eat the same food, buy the same clothes, or even stay in the same hotel. Cavanaugh argues that the movement of large corporations into other cultures has had an effect on that culture by absorbing it into the universal. These cultures are losing their own individual differences and are becoming one universal culture created by the corporations. This also means that small communities are no longer treating each other as “brothers and sisters,” because these corporations are moving in and disrupting the communities’ close bonds with one another. Horsley (2009:126) says that people lose a sense of responsibility for each other when they no longer consider themselves a