released 11/24/2023

In his 2003 book Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture, Vincent Miller examines how habits formed within consumer culture help to explain the breakdown of organized religious communities. Miller states that religious believers do not understand themselves as members of a church community, or as preservers of a tradition, partly because they are used to thinking of themselves as individual consumers. An interview with Miller from Volume 69 of the Journal is supplemented with excerpts from writing about consumer culture from sociologist Craig Gay.

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Related reading and listening

  1. How words are central to the human experience —
    FROM VOL. 95
    Craig Gay reflects on the essential linguistic nature of humanity: how our growth (or decline) in life is tied to words. (18 minutes)
  2. Worldliness vs. otherworldliness —
    FROM VOL. 38
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  4. Gay, Craig M. — FROM THE GUEST PAGE: Craig M. Gay is Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Regent College, Vancouver, B. C., Canada. Gay lectures in the area of Christianity, society, and culture.
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