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Just as human sacrifices increased when Aztec times were bad, we see our pontiffs piling billions more of colored paper upon the altar of the Mammon who has failed us.
Harvey Cox has written a mind-blowing exposition of this Western religion. As a Professor of Divinity at Harvard, he wrote one the two books judged most important in Twentieth Century Protestant theology, The Secular City .
“Mammon and the Culture of the Market” is very short. It is included in Meaning and Modernity (ISBN 0-520-22657-7) 2002. Cox makes a powerful religious case that we worship Mammon as our all-powerful God.
Those interested might bring in a line or two for discussion from time to time.
“In Christianity, God has traditionally been seen as omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, although these qualities are partially hidden from human eyes by sin and by the transcendent mystery of the divine. The Market God also exhibits all these “divine attributes”, but, analogously, they are also not always completely evident and must often be affirmed by faith”.
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Sharing one master?
Xie-Ming does not justify his strange assertion in his title that all religions share one master. Nor does he justify his assertion that Cox's book is "judged most important in Twentieth Century Protestant theology"! Judged by whom? That Mammon is a false god is a well-known thesis of Christian comment, and that Mammon is a powerful god today is indisputable. But Mammon is known by Christians to be a false and lying master, and certainly not ours!
Worshiping the supreme god
Just as human sacrifices increased when Aztec times were bad, we see our pontiffs piling billions more of colored paper upon the altar of the Mammon who has failed us.
Harvey Cox has written a mind-blowing exposition of this Western religion. As a Professor of Divinity at Harvard, he wrote one the two books judged most important in Twentieth Century Protestant theology, The Secular City .
“Mammon and the Culture of the Market” is very short. It is included in Meaning and Modernity (ISBN 0-520-22657-7) 2002. Cox makes a powerful religious case that we worship Mammon as our all-powerful God.
Those interested might bring in a line or two for discussion from time to time.
“In Christianity, God has traditionally been seen as omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, although these qualities are partially hidden from human eyes by sin and by the transcendent mystery of the divine. The Market God also exhibits all these “divine attributes”, but, analogously, they are also not always completely evident and must often be affirmed by faith”.
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
Going back to the original post .. a random digression, has anyone got the time to analyse all these threads and determine, according to some measure, how rapidly they drift away from the original topic, and even get trapped in eddies of repetition? Darwinian evolution I guess. I suppose going back would be the equivalent of an asteroid impact.
(As I was saying) going back to the original post, humans do seem to have a tendency to lock onto things in which they put their faith. In the real world this is based on beliefs not in omniscience etc but in efficacy, honesty, and above all that 'experts' really understand their subjects. The tar pit of toxic debt has proved otherwise, but the same could be said of the Titanic, the First World War, the Challenger disaster, and any number of minor errors which randomly result in major consequences. We live by periods of equilibrium (complacency) punctuated by step changes (crises), but it is by the latter that we learn.
It therefore appears inevitable that the 'Market God' shares some attributes of the religious variety because it, as it were, runs on the same hardware - us en masse. We don't have to properly understand concepts and processes before we adopt them and start to build edifices from them. In fact, understanding may be literally impossible: Try defining 'omnianything'. I have suggested elsewhere that no definition is possible that has any real meaning, so what counts is the feeling such words induce. There is another factor: all gods develop priesthoods whose interest lies in preserving them and discouraging awkward questions. That’s probably a natural process; perhaps evolutionary theory can help here too. The Market God, however, is bound to this earth, so when he turns out to have feet of clay, he can be toppled, and replaced by another.
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
"The Market God, however, is bound to this earth, so when he turns out to have feet of clay, he can be toppled, and replaced by another. "
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Indeed. Chinese hisotry gives examples of this, of the alternation between socialist repression and capitalist excess.
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
Socialism has definitely been repressed by capitalist excess, we could have had eight kids in a classroom and private health care for every one if the geniuses running the country didn't let us get raped and then paid for the taxi home
(how do you lose the GNP of a small country and demand your pension as deservedly yours)
oh and what about transfusing dirty blood into people whats that all about?
If you're a believer in god I hope it all makes sense to you, his great plan and grand design?
How much would it cost not to give the banks the money and stuff 'em?
[Moderator: edited for expletive]
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
Excuse me for squeezing out the vacuum. If Unregistered does not have feet of clay he certainly has a plaster backside (this is a minor revision of something much ruder said by Winston Churchill), which is not a good qualification for someone who is in retreat. Lots of people can see something is wrong, especially after it has happened, but it takes a calm and disciplined mind to see what is wrong at the fundamental level, and a bit of genius to correct it successfully.
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
Are you alluding to the genius of M Thatcher vis a vis workers rights, social housing, education and two tier medical care?
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
Yes, I recall that Sir Winston Churchill had a lot to say about Mrs Thatcher. He was, after all, very far-sighted.
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
He had the heart warming idea of turning machine guns on the striking miners in 1926 but he was good at polo and lived in Blenheim with excellent views.
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
what's that Flipper? people are stupid and should but don't learn from their mistakes? You can fool some of the people...
...shame on you er, ...me ...er, can't fool me again ...er? er, people who wear glasses read a lot... ...shouldn't throw stones?
Re: Worshiping the Supreme God
In “Mammon and the Culture of the Market”, Harvey Cox expounded the perception that the real God of the Protestant West was Mammon (the pursuit of wealth).
The Market is the God under whose mysterious guidance all things eventually result in the good. That god is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient.
Although there have always been markets in history, in the past, there were other gods as well. Now, the market is like Yahweh- dominant and jealous of any other gods.
There is an often expressed myth- that capitalism is the culmination of history. The choice of the buyer is upheld as the highest freedom and shopping is the way to redemption. Our pantheon of saints is a set of great entrepreneurs.
Advertising is the explication of the market faith, providing a description of the last, ultimate things, says Cox. The Promised Land remains just that, however, for the global market culture destroys traditional forms of work, family and community. It thus forcibly replaces the old idols of the community. An all-powerful market controls politics and dollars control votes
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
Can I throw a fly in the ointment here, and taking the thread's title at its face value suggest that to worship anything is disgraceful?
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
Do we really recognise Mammon as a god?
Or, have we internalized the precepts so much that they have become part of our reality of our unconscious worldview?
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
no.
yes.
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
yup, I like that.
but in the spirit of contentiousness I'll say, "What about one's own conscience?". Where would that take us? Or would that still have to be as disgraceful? Would it be the same for an honourable person or worse?
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
Roman Catholicism and Evangelical Christianity, though both being called 'Christian' are poles apart, i.e. an Evangelical Christian considers praying to Mary a great sin!
I agree that mammon has become the new god. That has happened for a number of reasons: 'bad leadership' - believers are not supposed to have 'positions (titles, hierarchies) of power' (do not esteem one higher than another)
"you must not be called Rabbi: for one is your master, even Christ, and all you are brethren...call no man your father (spiritual authority), for one is your father which is in heaven...neither are you to be called masters; for one is your Master, even Christ."
Rabbi, master, father, spiritual teacher, etc. are all 'titles' that men hold over one another in the churches. "but it shall not be so among you"
and among Christians, there is no solid and consistent method for interpreting the writings.
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
Harvey Cox had another observation:
An all-powerful market controls politics- dollars control votes. Instead of “one man, one vote”, it is more like "one check, one vote".
Thus the human values are not controlling, but rather financial values are controlling- everything is for sale.
Re: Worshiping the supreme god
Did you get your silver spurs for the depth and quality of your wisdom or is head office somewhere in the Amazon?