The Unholy Trinity of Consumerisum

The dominant worldview of most North Americans is now “Consumerism”. Three central forces of Consumerism are commodification, alienation, and branding. This essay reflects on the intersection of these forces with the Christian faith, claiming that it can have a powerful and perverse effect on our view of God, Scripture, and the mission of the church. Commodification causes us to believe that God has no inherent value apart from his ability to satisfy our desires. Alienation permits us to ignore the context of Scripture and instead allow our faith to be defined by personal experience. And branding pushes Christian identity away from character transformation in favor of superficiality.