Consumer culture permeates every part of contemporary life—even our religious habits and practices. Dr. Vincent Miller, author of Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture, will explain for us today what "advanced capitalism" does to our faith lives. His talk is an account of how capitalism commodifies religious faith, how we might be alert to these kinds of influences and develop strategies to combat them, and how we are responsible to be active participants in, not just passive consumers of, our culture.
We can develop better habits in connecting beliefs with actions, amid the continuous onslaughts of consumer culture, and Dr. Miller is going to explain how.
Vincent Miller is the Gudorf Chair in Catholic Theology and Culture at the University of Dayton in Ohio. His research focuses on how religious belief is handed down through time and across cultures.
This talk was originally given in April of 2006, at the Christianity and Consumerism conference put on by the Maclaurin Institute in Minneapolis. We thank them for the use of this recording, and encourage you to visit their website.