It's taken something big or to bring me out of hiding (by which I mean my silence on this blog).
I'm currently reading The Enchantments of Mammon by Eugene McCarraher. So far my perception is that this is a magnificent tour-de-force which transcends the tired old dichotomies of political and economic debate to offer a brave new perspective on capitalism, modernity, and the nature of the cosmos. It's beautifully written and formidably argued. I am savouring every sentence.
Here's a taste (various forms of emphasis added - in case you can't tell, I'm very enthused by this book!):
"The world does not need to be re-enchanted, because it was never disenchanted in the first place. Attending primarily to the history of the United States, I hope to demonstrate that capitalism has been, as Benjamin perceived, a religion of modernity, one that addresses the same hopes and anxieties formerly entrusted to traditional religion. But this does not mean only that capitalism has been and continues to be beguiling
or fetishized,
and that rigorous analysis will expose the phantoms as the projections they really are. These enchantments draw their power, not simply from our capacity for delusion, but from our deepest and truest desires—desires that are consonant and tragically out of touch with the dearest freshness of the universe. The world can never be disenchanted, not because our emotional or political or cultural needs compel us to find enchantments—though they do—but because the world itself, as Hopkins realized, is charged with the grandeur of God.
Hence the importance of theology for this book, as I root my affirmation of the persistence of enchantment in a theological claim about the world: that the earth is a sacramental place, mediating the presence and power of God, revelatory of the superabundant love of divinity."
PREACH!!!
I am tempted to start a running commentary on this delicious book. However, I doubt I'll be able to top Lynn Parramore's recent review, which is worth a read in its own right: https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/the-gospel-of-capitalism-is-the-biggest-turkey-of-all.
After starting this book today, it feels like my parched soul has been offered a deep drink of sweet water.
