On Consumer Culture, Identity, the Church and the Rhetorics of Delight (Reading Augustine)

Clavier, Mark

Bloomsbury Academic USA（2018/11発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 168 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781501330926
• DDC分類 261.85

Full Description

The Reading Augustine series presents short, engaging books offering personal readings of St. Augustine of Hippo's contributions to western philosophical, literary, and religious life.

Mark Clavier's On Consumer Culture, Identity, The Church and the Rhetorics of Delight draws on Augustine of Hippo to provide a theological explanation for the success of marketing and consumer culture. Augustine's thought, rooted in rhetorical theory, presents a brilliant understanding of the experiences of damnation and salvation that takes seriously the often hidden psychology of human motivation. Clavier examines how Augustine's keen insight into the power of delight over personal notions of freedom and self-identity can be used to shed light on how the constant lure of promised happiness shapes our identities as consumers. From Augustine's perspective, it is only by addressing the sources of delight within consumerism and by rediscovering the wellsprings of God's delight that we can effectively challenge consumer culture. To an age awash with commercial rhetoric, the fifth-century Bishop of Hippo offers a theological rhetoric that is surprisingly contemporary and insightful.

Contents

Introduction

Part One: Worldly Rhetoric
1. Augustine's Rhetoric of Self-Destruction
2. The Rhetoric of Consumerism

Part Two: Heavenly Rhetoric
3. Augustine's Eloquent God
4. The Divided Wills of Christian Consumers

Part Three: The Mission & Ministry of God's Rhetoric
5. The Church as a Rhetorical Community
6. God's Orators

Bibliography
Index