Mark Clavier - On Consumer Culture, Identity, The Church and the Rhetorics of Delight

On Consumer Culture, Identity, the Church and the Rhetorics of Delight

READING AUGUSTINE

Series Editor:

Miles Hollingworth

Reading Augustine offers personal and close readings of St. Augustine of Hippo from leading philosophers and religious scholars. Its aim is to make clear Augustines importance to contemporary thought and to present Augustine not only or primarily as a pre-eminent Christian thinker but as a philosophical, spiritual, literary, and intellectual icon of the West.

Volumes in the series:

On Ethics, Politics and Psychology in the
Twenty-First Century , John Rist

On Love, Confession, Surrender and the Moral Self , Ian Clausen

On Education, Formation, Citizenship and the
Lost Purpose of Learning , Joseph Clair

On Creativity, Liberty, Love and the Beauty
of the Law , Todd Breyfogle

On Consumer Culture, Identity, The Church and the
Rhetorics of Delight (forthcoming) , Mark Clavier

On Self-Harm, Narcissism, Atonement and the Vulnerable
Christ (forthcoming) , David Vincent Meconi

On God, The Soul, Evil and the Rise of Christianity
(forthcoming) , John Peter Kenney

On Music, Sound, Affect and Ineffability
(forthcoming) , Carol Harrison

On Consumer Culture, Identity, the Church and the Rhetorics of Delight

Mark Clavier

Contents

One of the most enjoyable aspects of writing this book is how it allowed me to bring together the two main strands of my research of the past nine years. Ive been engaging with ideas and issues associated with consumer culture ever since I was a young parish priest in western North Carolina, long before I began to give Augustine any serious academic attention. When in 2008 I began my doctoral work at Durham University on the nature and role of delight in the theology of Augustine of Hippo, I didnt imagine that it would have anything much to do with my earlier study of consumerism, never mind provide me with new insights and conceptual veins to mine. This book has finally enabled me to draw those two strands together in a deliberate and concentrated fashion; for that I owe the series editor Miles Hollingworth an enormous debt of gratitude.

The disadvantage of all this, however, is that acknowledgement now of all those whove helped me to develop my thinking would be repetitious since Ive already thanked them in my earlier books. They know who they are and, I hope, that my gratitude to them is boundless. Sparing her blushes, however, Ill again thank Carol Harrison, my former supervisor and now a good friend, who not only trained me to think hard about Augustine but also recommended that I submit a proposal for the Reading Augustine series. Those who know, work with, or have been taught by Carol will undoubtedly agree when I say that shes a gem within academia: her combination of intellectual rigour, warmth, a capacity for deep care and support, and refreshing humility endears her to many.

In more recent years, Peter Sedgwick has also been a pillar of support and a great encourager. Hes pushed me in directions I hadnt previously considered, and our many theological discussions over the past five years have been a delight. Thanks also to Robin Gibbons, George Westhaver, and Matt Gunter whose respective invitations to speak allowed me to begin addressing Augustine to the question of consumerism; in each case, the discussions that followed my presentations shaped my thinking and forced me to hone some of my arguments.

Finally, much of this book was written in an eventful year of my life in which I experienced deep lows and tremendous highs. My most heartfelt thanks, therefore, goes to those who supported and loved me through those months and, therefore, enabled me to continue writing and eventually to complete this book. Both Carol and Peter number among them, but I would add not only my parents but also, most importantly, my son Paul and my wife Sarah. Paul, whos about to finish school, has been my chief delight for more than eighteen years. Sarah, on the other hand, came into my life only two years ago, but in that time has shown me, through her astonishing capacity for love, how right Augustine was to say that delight sets our souls in their place.

Mark Clavier

The Almonry

Brecon Cathedral

Augustine

Cicero