The Good Life: Genuine Christianity for the Middle Class
About the Author:\ David Matzko McCarthy is The Father Forker Professor of Catholic Social Teaching and an associate professor of theology at Mount St. Mary's University Emmitsburg, Maryland
Search in google:
Feel guilty for having so much? You can enjoy a life of material blessings without falling into materialism. This book shows you how. Publishers Weekly Some Christians advocate a total asceticism that requires giving all money and goods to the poor; others embrace a health-and-wealth gospel and claim that God wants believers to be rich. Which view is correct? According to David McCarthy in The Good Life: Genuine Christianity for the Middle Class, people don't need to go to either extreme; it is possible to be a responsible Christian and live comfortably though not excessively. The admonition to "seek ye first the kingdom of God," he says, is "not idealistic advice, but a very practical way of love," and forms the key to Christian values. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Acknowledgments9The Beginning: Seek First the Kingdom11Pt. 1People19Introduction211American and Middle Class222Contractual Connections and Our Economic Logic293Friendship334God's Gift of Friendship385Love and Justice426God and Neighbor467Family First498Marriage549Sex and Singleness58Pt. 2Places65Introduction6710Our Place6811The Home and the Hospitality of the Market7212Sharing, Eating, and Housekeeping7713Country and Nation8314Hope for the World90Pt. 3Things95Introduction9715The Meaning of Things9816Debts and Gifts10417Wants and Needs10818Work and Cultivation11419Our Relation to Things119Pt. 4God and Creation127Introduction12920We Believe13121One God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth13722For God, Creation Out of Nothing, and for Us, Lots of Things14323One Lord, Jesus Christ, the Only Son of God14824The Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life15325The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church15726The Forgiveness of Sin16127Resurrection and the Life of the World to Come166A Final Word: Bound to Love171Bibliography173
\ Publishers WeeklySome Christians advocate a total asceticism that requires giving all money and goods to the poor; others embrace a health-and-wealth gospel and claim that God wants believers to be rich. Which view is correct? According to David McCarthy in The Good Life: Genuine Christianity for the Middle Class, people don't need to go to either extreme; it is possible to be a responsible Christian and live comfortably though not excessively. The admonition to "seek ye first the kingdom of God," he says, is "not idealistic advice, but a very practical way of love," and forms the key to Christian values. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Library Journal"The consumer economy promises great benefits," writes McCarthy (theology, Mount St. Mary's Coll.; Sex and Love in the Home: A Theology of the Household), "but ironically, it makes our everyday lives nearly impossible to manage." The author contends that we are in bondage to a frazzled market economy and that the freedom from this yoke comes from Christ's mandate to "Seek first the kingdom of God." With its contemporary recasting of Matthew 6:25-34, the book aspires to reach a broad audience of laypeople, students, and clergy. It's one volume in "The Christian Practice of Everyday Life," a series by Brazos Press, the avant-garde division of Baker Books that veers into more experimental and controversial territory than its conservative parent company. This book succeeds in its "practical theology" and its challenge to America's economic and romantic notions, yet its tone is one of humility and genuineness-it's not a jeremiad or tirade. Those who identify with the Christian faith will enjoy this book and its call for middle-class asceticism. However, those outside the fold will not be moved. Recommended for Christian collections in public and academic libraries.-C. Brian Smith, Arlington Heights Memorial Lib., IL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.\ \
