Blessed Are the Consumers: Climate Change and the Practice of Restraint

by Sallie McFague

For decades, Sallie McFague has lent her voice and her theological imagination to addressing and advocating for the most important issues of our time. In doing so, she has influenced an entire generation, and empowered countless people in their efforts to put religion in the service of meeting human needs in difficult times. In this timely book, McFague recalls her readers to the practices of restraint. In a world bent on consumption it is imperative that people of religious faith realize the significant role they play in advocating for the earth, and a more humane life for all. The root of restraint, she argues, rests in the ancient Christian notion of Kenosis, or self-emptying. By introducing Kenosis through the life stories of John Woolman, Simone Weil, and Dorothy Day, McFague brings a powerful theological concept to bear in a winsome and readable way.

Genres: Theology, Feminism, Ecology, Nonfiction

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2013

About the author

Sallie McFague (born 1933) was an American feminist Christian theologian.

Reviews

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally finished Blessed Are the Consumers: Climate Change and the Practice of Restraint! A fascinating, dense book which points the way to a new approach to life inspired by 3 saints but relevant to the crises of climate change and wealth inequality. I had a lot of resistance to this book but in the end, while I feel like I can't possibly live it out, it may change some of my ways of thinking about my life.

This was not at all a fast read for me. I gave up several times, almost throwing the book against the wall (I was that frustrated!). McFague uses the lives of three saints to posit a different way of viewing the world, our lives and our selves (literally what that "self" is). The examples she uses as a lens to examine a way of living that could save our planet from destruction and distribute wealth more equitably are John Woolman, Simone Weil, and Dorothy Day. I had not heard of Woolman (a Quaker preacher who lived his life in protest of slavery and the wealth accrued by it--he gave up his business because he felt its profits put him in conflict with living God's way) but Weil and Day are two heroes of mine.

McFague offers no easy answers but suggests that the world religions need to take an active stance in promoting a life that is counter to the current one of consumerism and greed. She evokes the concept of kenosis--a self-emptying and a view of the self as part of a greater whole, not an individual but deeply interrelated to all other life, not only human but plant and animal as well.

I often felt angry and overwhelmed by the challenge of this book. How would I travel without my car when so much is inaccessible by public transportation (much of which in my area also feels unsafe)? How could I give up buying books (my biggest expenditure)? And, less specifically but perhaps more to the point, how can I simplify my life to make room for greater justice for others and a more relevant and authentic living out of the religion I profess and supposedly believe in?

McFague posits that the most important change is a simple (but difficult) change in our attitudes toward what the self is. I felt drawn to the idea that in that change, seeing life as pure gift that we appreciate for a while and then move on to become again part of the universe from which we came, we lose our fear of death. I am a long way from that. As much as I work on detaching from the possession of "stuff,," I am very attached to my "self," my life. But my life would certainly be better, I would gain immensely from losing the fear of death. And at 69 years old, it seems that the time to do so is exactly now.

The final chapters of the book are a fascinating (and while difficult because so packed with ideas, also easier because less personally confronting) view of what Jesus and the Trinity actually mean in relation to us. Not Jesus so much as some kind of "buddy" but as the face of God, a living representation of the Holy Spirit. And "God" as literally love and the Trinity (a concept I love) defining God as relational (something else I love and find inspirational). God is relationship, God is the interrelationship of all, God is not a Supreme Being, something removed from us, some kind of puppet master. Above all, God is a process not a thing and we are all subjects as well as objects.

If you are interested in challenges to our current consumer culture, a lived and vital spirituality, the role religion could play in the wold, and a way to confront consumerism and its connection to climate change and wealth inequality, a way to move toward justice (and even survival) then I strongly recommend this book. As I said, not a fast or easy read but a powerful and thought-provoking (maybe even life-changing) one.

[Art Giff · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are some books that present such profound ideas and challenges that I read them very slowly. This is one of those books. Taking three notable Christians, John Woolman of colonial America, Dorothy Day of the Catholic Workers and mid 2oth Century, and finally Simone Weil, French and member of the resistance during WWII. Her intent is to define sainthood through their lives and challenge the reader to embrace their pattern of self emptying as a pattern for our own lives. She believes that this is crucial if we wish to really avoid the disaster facing us in global climate change. An ethic based in self emptying would draw us back from being defined by what we consume and lessen the damage we are doing to God's Creation.

[Harry Maier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blessed are the Consumers has accompanied me through Holy Week. As ever, McFague writes with enviable clarity and precision. While at some points repetitious, the book repays attention for the way it relates the task of contemporary Christian theology to ecological concern. Specifically she exhorts Christians to ecological care through the practise of restraint and self-limitation in imitation of the God who self-empties for the sake of love. Consumerism, she argues, is the antithesis of Christian discipleship, even as it opposes what is central to world religions in general. She sagely notes that common to all the major religions is a teaching that urges self-limitation so that others may flourish. Against the ethics of the pursuit of capital and consumption, where the self replaces neighbour as the chief good, McFague asks us to consider another way. She invites us to consider the lives of John Woolman, Simone Weil, and Dorothy Day, whose autobiographies she has read and taught for over 50 years, as models of Christian discipleship. She plumbs their lives to discover what they can teach us about an ethic of restraint in the face of the present ecological crisis. She discovers in the Quaker Woolman a call to die to self that Christ may live within us. In the Christian mystic, Simone Weil, she meets a call to awareness of neighbour, and to give oneself as food for the world. In the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, Dorothy Day, she meets a Christian concern for the other that expresses itself in political activism. Taken together, all three offer central insights for an ecological ethic in which the self dies so that Christ may live, and creation lives along with him, in which one opens one's eyes to the world and its suffering in all of its ecological travail, and where the religious life is expended in political activism for the sake of the poor, especially a creation steadily impoverished by over-consumption. It is the last two chapters of the book, however, where McFague offers ground-breaking theological reflection. She outlines a theory of kenosis and links it to her earlier work on the universe as the body of God. Divine kenosis, the self-emptying of God in the incarnation, furnishes insight for a sustained theology of ecological care. She moves beyond the traditional christological application of kenosis to meditate upon the self-emptying of God in the Trinity, both of the love of Father, Son and HOly Spirit for one another, and God's love for the world. McFague brings us to the doorstep of a 21st century theology that starts with the self-empyting of Jesus and then continues to consider kenosis as a model of God and human flourishing. She effectively demonstrates that a Christian identity grounded in the incarnation and the self-emptying of God urges us to receive our life as the gift of God, who has poured God's self out in the world, and who invites us to do the same for one another, and for the sake of all life around us. The practice of restraint, then, arises not as a response to the dour apocalypticism of many contemporary environmentalists, but to the abundance of life that comes from receiving the life of God given in creation as the divine outpouring of the Trinity. The result is an understanding of God and cosmos centred in thanksgiving and life. I am grateful for the work of a mature and gifted theologian, passionate for the life of the world.

[Kevin Wolz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will challenge you to elevate the other at the expense of yourself. Action that addresses the two major issues facing our world that McFague identifies—climate change and global poverty—is long overdue. So in just over 200 pages, the author gives compelling theological and historical reasons to follow Jesus’ example in the Kenotic Hymn (Phil 2.6-11): empty ourselves for the sake of the other. This means that it is the Christian’s responsibility to *not* prioritize their own comfort. Instead, we *must* live an outward focused life.

Disclaimer: McFague, while a dedicated Christian and longtime servant of the Lord, does make some statements and theological stance that may prove troubling (or at least puzzling) to the typical conservative Christian. If you let these positions distract you from her argument, then you are missing the point and—more importantly—the problem.

Read this book; change your life.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

We have economic and ecological crises in our world. As a theologian, McFague offers us a look at God and ourselves that is different than the usual. Instead of all-powerful we see God as self-giving (kenotic love). This is the face of God seen in Jesus of Nazareth. This is what Jesus preached and asked his disciples to likewise be. McFague presents John Woolman, Simone Weil, and Dorothy Day who exemplify paths in this regard. She goes into great depth on them and that biographical material is in itself very interesting. This view of God and ourselves turns our way of thinking about everything upside down. I loved her presentation on the parable of the Good Samaritan. She places us in the position of the injured person on the road and the Good Samaritan as God. Bottom line is that we are needy and we are not in control as we so very much want to believe we are. That way of thinking we are in command and control seems to have made a mess of things, no? Her way out is as simple and as difficult as what Jesus taught. It reminds me that I have heard that "repent" really means "change your mind."

This book is long and repetitive and I think it needed to be to make a dent in my thinking.

[Rachel Nemecek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give McFague all the stars for tackling the critical topics of climate change and social justice in a way that is challenging to the individual and really thought provoking. The principles are extremely challenging to our desire for comfort and convenience, but even more important for forcing the reader to think about why we feel so challenged by this message. However, the writing was terribly dense and repetitive and general just very difficult to get through overall. Also thought the sections on how to practically apply the principles were too vague and too brief.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review forthcoming when I have time to unpack it all.

[Evan Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is very important reading. Brilliant, moving, convicting, a book that will actually help you see and live different.

[Amanda Himes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book, but its political agenda and repetitious-ness made that difficult. Still, McFague's reading of the lives of Quaker John Woolman, Catholic Worker Movement's Dorothy Day, and French philosopher Simone Weil, who starved to death in commiseration with her countrymen suffering under Nazi rule, are each inspiring.

McFague's idea that middle-class people need to undergo voluntary poverty to jar themselves out of the "conventional model of self-fulfillment through possessions and prestige, and into a model of self-emptying," with Jesus as an example, particularly resonates. Will it be enough to save our planet? The author is doubtful, but argues that we must do it anyway. My favorite quote from the book comes from Simone Weil: "The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering but a supernatural use for it."

[Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The other reviews that say it's repetitive are spot on. After you've read the first half, the second have is 90% the same.

I'm a fan of McFague, but this one let me down (outside of the thesis, which could be spelled out in a chapter).

[Jess Smoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little redundant in places, but overall excellent.