Book Review: McKibben's "Deep Economy"
In Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, Bill McKibben writes,
“I would be content if this book helped shake our ingrained belief that growth is still an obvious necessary goal our our economy–content if the reader wondered a little the next time he or she heard some newscaster happily declare that the economy had gotten 3% percent larger. And content, as well, if my work helped shake the idea that there was no alternative to growth save miserable recession.”
Well, McKibben should be content, then, as his book did that and more for this reader.
McKibben has written for The New Yorker, and is the author of, among others, Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age, The End of Nature, and The Comforting Whirlwind: God, Job, and the Scale of Creation.
I found Deep Economy a great read, as it both did well to name some of the ridiculousness of our current consumer culture, and provided glimpses into other better ways.
The book is broken into five sections. The first, “After Growth” chronicles how the economy and society changed after the invention of the steam engine. This section includes a discussion on both the environmental impact of growth — basically, bad — and the sociological impact — not quite as good as we’d like to think.
I’ll let you guess what section two is about, “The Year of Eating Locally,” but it does have a more hopeful feel because a) it’s nearly possible to eat completely locally in many parts of the US and b) buying and eating local is a fast-growing trend.
The third section, “All for One, or One for All” investigates America’s passion for individualism through many different lenses, making the — almost Christian — argument for a new way to vision community.
Fourthly, in “The Wealthy of Communities” McKibben takes the reader deeper into such communities of mutual support and local-mindset who have a different idea of progress than just that of one where the individual prospers.
Finally, “The Durable Future” anticipates the positive places such a philosophy could take a culture. McKibben’s vision isn’t quite rosy, but I appreciated that it’s not as dour as some environmentalists.
Though sometimes a bit plodding with statistics and stories, I found Deep Economy to be a fair, though troubling assessment of where our consumer culture has taken us. At many points I appreciated how easily his prose and perspective could be adapted in Christian circles. I can only hope that more will heed McKibben’s words and begin to make choices, buy products, and sustain relationships that make our economy not just deeper, but richer too.
Sermon: Holy Harmony, (Psalm 98)
Here’s the 11:15 service sermon preached this morning.
Questions to consider:
- Fred Craddock writes regarding exegesis, “let the congregation discover what you discovered” rather than walking them through the process of your discovery. I certainly might have been too teachy on the exegesis than preachy.
- This sermon lacks much humor. For the context, it might have had another more traditional funny illustration to keep folks on the journey with me.
- Not much Jesus.
(CC Photo by Lutz-R. Frank)
Holy Harmony
Psalm 98
(If you’d prefer the Word file with footnotes, maybe click here.)
A few years ago, while traveling, I bought a copy of J.R.R. Tolkein’s book Lord of the Rings–partly because I had largely forgotten the story that I loved in childhood, partly to prepare for the release of the first new film directed by Peter Jackson, and partly because it’s a long book, and thus good for a holiday.
I loved the book so much, though, that my last consideration back-fired: not only did I read the book in record time, but I came close to missing out on my trip as my face was buried in the pages rather than taking in the new sights and sounds.
I’m not strictly fanatical about Tolkein’s series. But, one particular character has stuck in my mind for years. His name is “Treebeard,” a creature called an “Ent.”
… Continue Reading
Sermon Workshop
Though I’m trying not to think about next week’s sermon while on holiday, I’m not doing the best job. Since the epistle reading focuses on heaven–what I preached on last week–and since the gospel passage is eschatological–what I spoke on last month–I’m going go preach on the psalm for change.
Here’s Psalm 98 in the NIV (as taken from this page: Bible Gateway link)
1 Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
2 The LORD has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
3 He has remembered his love
and his faithfulness to the house of Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.4 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth,
burst into jubilant song with music;
5 make music to the LORD with the harp,
with the harp and the sound of singing,
6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—
shout for joy before the LORD, the King.
7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands,
Let the mountains sing together for joy; 9 let them sing before the LORD,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples with equity.
According to the one commentary-like book I have here, the psalm is usually broken into three parts: 1) God’s cool deeds, 2) response to God’s cool deeds, 3) response intensified. Rebel that I am, though, I put the psalm above in two sections because I’m working on an idea.
What if the last two parts are really one part? It makes sense for post-enlightenment commentators to judge the psalm in three parts because that’s how they viewed the world. One part about God. One part about humans. One part about the earth and animals. Everything had its place. But what if we think of the psalm not as in three parts but two? Rather than separating humans from the rest of the earth, what if the final two sections are really one? What if it’s not that we praise first, and then the earth dutifully follows suit but the praise of God is not sufficient until the entire earth, and all the creatures in it, praise together. What if we’re only a small piece of the puzzle? What if God cares less about our individual praise and more about the praise of all people, animals, plants, and earth together?
Now for the application. Any ideas out there?
I guess my main idea runs something like this: if the psalmist is calling us to praise God with all the earth, we might as well start now. To do so we should probably start viewing animals as more than merely means to an end, mountains as more than presenting hiking challenges, rivers as more than places in which to fish. But what else does this reading imply? How do we help the rivers clap their hands? How do we support the praise of the sea and all that lives in it?
And what to make of the promise of judgement at the end?
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