Buying God: Consumerism and Theology

By Eve Poole

Uniting theoretical work on theology, capitalism and consumerism with a scheme of detailed practical action, 'Buying God' explores how we can wean ourselves off the material and on to the eternal, through prayer, example, and vibrant social action. Drawing on the Church’s rich traditions of Social Liturgy, 'Buying God' calls on the Christian community to renew its confidence and strength in proclaiming this good news. Uniting theoretical work on theology, capitalism and consumerism with a scheme of detailed practical action, the book explores how we can wean ourselves off the material and on to the eternal, through prayer, example, and vibrant social action.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SCM Press
• Release date: Aug 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9780334056768

Eve Poole

Eve Poole is a Leadership Associate at Ashridge Business School. She has also worked for Deloitte Consulting in the financial services industry, and the Church Commissioners, who run a £6billion portfolio. Her clients range from EY and Tesco to the Foreign Office and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and this breadth of experience makes her a popular commentator on leadership, ethics, and public life. www.evepoole.livejournal.com / @evepoole

Book preview

Dr Poole’s work is a magnificent contribution to the church. Written by a gifted theologian and practitioner, this book is for all those wishing to gain both a richer theological understanding of capitalism and modern consumerism, and practical insights on how we can simplify our lives. This is vital work, not only for our own spiritual benefit, but also for the good of society and for the wellbeing of our planet. The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

This is a wonderful book. It is very accessible, theologically sophisticated, and rooted in a deep knowledge of commerce, management and consumerism, in which Eve Poole is an expert. I know of no better book for guiding Christians in the day to day world of consumerism. Inspiring, compelling and very easy to read, it deserves a wide readership. Peter Sedgwick, theologian and former Principal of St. Michael’s College, Llandaff

This learned and thought provoking book might be the only you ever need on the subject. It manages to combine a whistle stop tour through theology’s big dogs with a helpful primer on capitalism and some deeply practical questions to provoke action. It’s rare that a book this readable and amusing covers so much intellectual ground. Elizabeth Oldfield, Director, Theos

Knowledgeable and accessible, as adept at exploring economics as at delineating theological method, Buying God offers a steady hand through the demands of global capitalism and the seductions of human desire. Eve Poole offers an example of how theology is always politics, and always devotional – and, at its best, both at the same time. Samuel Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields

This book is thought provoking, giving the reader the opportunity to reflect seriously from a theological perspective about their own consumerism and the wider implications of consumerism within the global economy. Revd Dr Fiona Stewart-Darling, Bishop’s Chaplain in London Docklands

© Eve Poole 2018

Published in 2018 by SCM Press

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

Part 1 How to do Theology

1 Types of Theology

2 Worldview Theology

3 Etiquette Theology

4 Good Theology

Part 2 God and Consumerism

5 What in the World is Consumerism?

6 What does God Think About It?

7 What Should We do About It?

8 The Consumption Audit

Conclusion

Resources

1 The Consumer’s Prayer

2 A Month of Virtue

3 Consumption Audit

4 Useful Websites

5 The Bible on Money

6 Six-Week Reflection Course

References and Further Reading

Index

And so the yearning strong, with which the soul

will long,

Shall far outpass the power of human telling;

For none can guess its grace, till he become the place

Wherein the Holy Spirit makes His dwelling.

Bianco da Siena, trans. Richard Frederick Littledal

Preface

This book was commissioned to bring together into one volume my work to date on theology, capitalism and consumerism. Much of this is buried in monographs, scattered between blogs and sermons, or contained in several seemingly unconnected books. Some of the content may therefore not be new to those who have followed my work, but the opportunity this volume provides is to draw the threads together into a coherent argument. It seeks to make sense of my disparate thoughts, and to contribute towards the wider debate on how we as Christians should behave in the marketplace, both individually and collectively.

As will be argued in the book, the person of the theologian is particularly pertinent in the matter of public theology. Therefore, some context follows. I was brought up a cradle Christian in the Scottish Episcopal Church. I read Theology at Durham before working for the Church Commissioners for England as a graduate. I then took an MBA at Edinburgh and worked for Deloitte Consulting as a Change Management Consultant in London, with a particular focus on the financial services sector. I left this profession to teach leadership at Ashridge Business School, and to study part-time at Cambridge for a PhD in Capitalism and Theology. I became freelance when I had children, and now occupy non-executive roles as the Chairman of Gordonstoun and as the Third Church Estates Commissioner. I have written several books on marketplace theology and leadership, all of which are independent of any of my employers. I write as a Christian who is a member of the Church of England but who has worked enough in a secular context to appreciate that neither has a monopoly on the truth. My style is deliberately accessible and will not appeal to those who prefer a higher academic tone. Neither do I locate myself within any specific church tradition. My intention is to inform and to persuade, and I own a bias towards practical action rather than just the right thoughts.

Thanks are due to Palgrave Macmillan, Bloomsbury and the William Temple Foundation for permission to include some material from my earlier publications. The analysis of type first appeared in a thesis I submitted for my PhD. It was subsequently published as The Church on Capitalism (Poole 2010). Material from Chapter 3 of that book is reproduced here with kind permission of Palgrave Macmillan. Detailed academic footnotes appear in that volume but are omitted in this one. A shorter version of that analysis also appeared in Theology and Economics (Kidwell and Doherty 2015). A version of the argument about Capitalism was first delivered as the Just Share Lecture at St Mary-le-Bow on 29 January 2014. The full argument appears in Capitalism’s Toxic Assumptions (Poole 2015a). I also wrote two ebooks for the William Temple Foundation, God and Money (Poole 2015b) and Ethical Consumerism (Poole 2016), elements of which are reproduced here; and a fuller discussion of character and habits in the context of leadership can be found in Leadersmithing (Poole 2017).

I am particularly grateful to Nathan Percival, Peter Sedgwick, Ann Loades and Philip Krinks for their encouragement and support. You have to be either arrogant or brave to be a theologian, because you risk heresy with everything you write. So I am in debt to all the wise souls who have tried to keep me on the straight path – any resulting heresy is of course all mine.

Introduction

Why did you buy this book? Its title is Buying God. Did you think that was what you were doing? Of course it is a play on words. We need to buy God not Mammon in our purchasing; but also, if we are ever to rescue our economic system from collapse, consumerism needs to buy God as providing a better explanatory narrative than Mammon. Addiction to growth, novelty and accumulation is putting us on a collision course with the planet. We shall not win, because the planet will just kick us off if we go too far. That means that we need to correct our consumerism, and to find ways to live together, sustainably.

The book starts with an extended section on theological method. It uses the fruits of this analysis to shape the second half, which is a practical look at consumerism in context; what theology might have to say about it; and a concluding section about how we as Christians might sow the seeds of the transformation of consumerism.

You are the consumer, so you can read it however you like. Here are some suggestions:

If you tend to read books from cover to cover, thank you and congratulations – you are a rare beast.

If you are in the trade, you might like the theology section, although it will make you wince a bit.

If you are feeling anxious about consumerism, you might like to focus on the consumer audit at the end.

If you are a student, I’ve tried to make the referencing light but obvious – please get in touch if you need more.

If you are writing a sermon for the weekend, use the Index to find the quirky bits.

If you are involved in Christian formation, use the Resources section to help you cure your souls.

This preamble shows that my primary audience for this book is my fellow believers. I hope it will help all of us to feel braver about accounting for the hope that is in us, because the world needs to hear what we have to say. In an often openly hostile context, finding our voice in the public square is difficult, and this book should help to arm us for that fight. And it is a fight. The unquestioning acceptance of secularism as a ‘neutral’ narrative has allowed consumerism free rein. But we can see that all is not well, because the have-nots in our parishes the length and breadth of the country are not profiting from the ‘trickle down’ that capitalism promised. As I will argue, our sort of Christianity is uniquely perfect for the task in hand. So we need to put on the armour of Christ and get to work. And if any of you are reading this as a non-Christian out of curiosity? Welcome. We need you too.

Theory of Change

Because this is so important, I do not want to miss out any steps, even if you choose to do so. Ignore me if so. But it has become fashionable to discuss ‘theories of change’ when embarking upon any project that is exhortative in nature. And because the intent of this book is to inspire consumer action, it is right to own the assumptions being made about what needs to change and how change happens.

In the first instance, I want to talk about systems, through the device of the Orders of Creation. Then I want to bridge into people versus systems, through the work of Douglas Griffin. Finally, I want to look at salt and light through the lens of the game theorists.

Orders of Creation

There is a rather neglected motif in theology known as Orders of Creation. The term, more familiar to continental audiences than within Anglican theology, seeks to address the very practical problem facing adults that, by the time they are in a position to notice their formation and to develop opinions about it, most of it has already happened. This means that there is never an untainted vantage point, where influences such as family and society have not already made their mark. This renders it hazardous to affect the objective nonchalance of scholarship without at least exploring what some of those formative influences have already been, and how they might already be refracting the argument.

Bonhoeffer called them the Mandates, Barth the Provinces; but most sources agree that the Orders are marriage and the family, the economic order, the political order and the community of culture. Ronald Preston, who often discusses them in his work, explains that these Orders affect humans before they are able to notice or make choices, and their decisive influence demands that in any debate involving them, what is required is the concurrent reformation of both the structures themselves and the individuals influenced by them: to focus on either to the detriment of the other prevents progress (Preston 1979, pp. 76f.).

Discussion about the Orders points up the chicken-and-egg matter of the extent to which structures influence individuals and are influenced by them. Views on how best to resolve this dilemma produce a spectrum among commentators from an emphasis on concrete changes to policy, systems or institutions, on the one hand, to an emphasis on the necessary reform of individuals – both in heart, mind and behaviour – on the other.

Institutions

Consumerism is clearly part of the economic order, so we cannot look at it dispassionately, having already been formed by it. So how can we achieve a critical distance? Douglas Griffin is our first port of call. He notes our tendency to blame ‘the system’ when things go wrong, even while we have been autonomous moral actors within it. This is, simply, duplicitous (Griffin 2002, pp. 1ff.). Of course we are shaped by Orders of Creation – or any system – but we can also shape them in turn: both/and, not either/or. Wherever we see organizations being called out for bad behaviour, it would have been entirely possible for their members to have spontaneously reformed if they had felt strongly enough about it.

This rather tough line is given credence by the work of Douglass North, located within the wider literature on institutions. His work on institutions has been developed by Anthony Kasozi into a useful taxonomy. After North, Kasozi defines institutions as ‘socially established rules, or systems of rules, that systematically organize, enable and constrain all human beings and interactions in a society’ (Kasozi 2008, p. 112). He draws a distinction between institutions and mere influences, and describes four families of institutions:

Language, which underpins and provides the foundation for all other institutions.

Explicit Institutions, which are public rules and systems of rules, like constitutions, laws and legal systems, decrees, money, conventions, codes, contracts and property rights.

Implicit Institutions, which are those unwritten rules that are held commonly within a given social grouping, like a norm or a custom, some of which underpin many of the categories above.

Other ‘Complex’ Institutions, which vary in appearance and intricacy depending on the nature and complexity of the civil society in which they develop, like family, clan, organization, market, state (Kasozi 2008, pp. 115f., Table 3.1, pp. 120f.).

His categories are not mutually exclusive, so a given institution may resonate across the categories, but his classification opens up a far wider-ranging field than the traditional list of Orders, which it can also accommodate.

Whether the language used is one of Orders or institutions, one thing becomes abundantly clear: they are all man-made, and so can be un-made. Sometimes such changes may seem like tasks for a Goliath; equally throughout history and all over the world such things have often been overturned by a David. And the Church is currently a Power in its own right. Episcopally led, and synodically governed. It would be entirely possible for the Church to engage with partner institutions – other Principalities and Powers – particularly where these intersect with the Church’s wider mission and activities. Such an investigation would include a discussion of systems and complexity thinking, as well as the practices of dialogue and change, to ascertain how the Church might best understand, co-exist with, and influence modern institutions and culture. We will discuss a good example of this later on, when we look at the Church’s recent initiative on consumer lending.

Salt and Light

We can influence institutions, and we can change our own behaviour. But does being salt and light really work? Game theory would suggest that it does. Game theory is a branch of mathematics that seeks to model interactions between intelligent and rational decision-makers, and is used in economics, politics and psychology, as well as in logic and programming. It reduces typical interactions to formulaic ‘games’ to test strategies and to predict likely outcomes. One such game is called the Prisoner’s Dilemma. This basic scenario involves two suspects being arrested and imprisoned by the police. Because the evidence is insufficient for a conviction, the authorities need at least one of the suspects to confess in order that both might be implicated. The prisoners are placed in separate cells, and the police visit each in turn to persuade them to confess. Obviously, if both prisoners remain silent, both will go free. If both confess, both will be sentenced. If one confesses, he could negotiate a reduced sentence in