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Eve Poole, Buying God: Consumerism & Theology (London: SCM, 2018), pp. xviii + 174. £16.99.
Of all the moral and theological dilemmas facing the church in the modern world, perhaps no single issue is more all-encompassing than the challenge posed by the seemingly inescapable matrix of consumer culture. Given the pervasiveness of this problem it is not surprising that for several decades the theological guild has seen steady production of works focusing on the dynamics of consumer culture. In Buying God, Dr Eve Poole attempts to harvest the rich field of academic work about consumerism and present it in a form that is more accessible to a popular audience, without sacrificing the precision of academic analysis (pp. x, xii).
The practical thrust of the book is perhaps its most unique and welcome contribution to the discussion of consumerism. The final chapter of the book (Chapter 8) invites its reader into a personal examination which Poole calls ‘The Consumption Audit’. Covering areas of personal well-being, time, talents, finances, relationships and the planet, the ‘Consumption Audit’ attempts to assist Christians in interrogating the habits and patterns of life that consumerism inculcates in us (Chapters 5 and 6) and to measure these against true spiritual desire...