Rethinking Materialism: Perspectives on the Spiritual Dimension of Economic Behavior

Jacket Description/Back: This collection of essays by ten of the nation's prominent social scientists and theologians offers serious commentary on our culture's obsession with material goods and examines the uneasy relation of materialism to religion. The contributors assess the ways in which materialism has been understood in recent analyses of American character, how the economy shapes our understandings of ourselves, the ways in which religious thought is being reshaped by economic circumstances, and the nature of consumerism. The complement to Wuthnow's God and Mammon in America, this volume challenges us all to look at materialism in new ways and suggests viable means for reversing our country's prevailing material fixation and its destructive effects on our spiritual lives.

Contributor Bio:  Wuthnow, Robert Robert Wuthnow is Professor of Sociology, Princeton University. He is the author of many works, including "The Crisis in the Churches: Spiritual Malaise, Fiscal Woe" (1997), "Poor Richard's Principle: Recovering the American Dream through the Moral Dimension of Work, Business, and Money" (1996), and "Meaning and Moral Order: Explorations in Cultural Analysis" (California, 1987).