materialism

David Bentley Hart imagines Eros, Hephaistos, Hermes, and Psyche coming out of retirement to debate contemporary philosophy and science.

We don’t need to debate the possibility of a reanimated corpse. We need to reimagine our whole understanding of the material world.

An ethicist and an anthropologist ask: How much is too much?

Other people have the things I want, and they seem fine.

I was raised in an ecumenical church community affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. When I later joined a Mennonite church, where many members were not raised with the church calendar, I became a bit of an Advent purist. Maybe a lot of one.

Scott Dannemiller narrates his family's year of simpler living. By the end, he acknowledges that "stuff" is not bad.

Morton Kelsey showed me that I was under a spell that needed to be broken.

God doesn’t hate stuff. God invents stuff.

Jesus called the young ruler to a new kind of material life, a life given to serving the poor with the “materials” of tears, blood and sweat. Clearly, this life is not marked by the kinds of happiness used to sell goods. But we do honor Jesus’ call in our culture when we honor volunteers and all those who serve others.