Will Evangelicals Teach Them Economic Obedience or Consumer Theology?

There are many biblical commands regarding economic justice, limiting material possessions, and resistance to covetousness. However, evangelicals have been unduly influenced by an American culture with a pervasive ‘will to have’ and consequent consumptive practices: by remaining largely silent on matters of economic obedience and justice, mimicking the economic practices of the prevailing culture of acquisition, and holding uncritical and unbiblical attitudes towards material possessions as evidenced by the role of the Christian cultural products industry. Instead, evangelicals should be wary of using consumerist methods to further the faith and oppose the deleterious effects that consumerism has on beliefs, practices, theological reflection, and power. Finally, I try to show that a consumer ‘theology’ is fundamentally at odds with the evangelical theological tradition, particularly its notion of sanctification as theocentric, gracious and sufficient.