How Much Is Enough?: Hungering for God in an Affluent Culture

How Much Is Enough?: Hungering for God in an Affluent Culture

by Arthur Simon
How Much Is Enough?: Hungering for God in an Affluent Culture

How Much Is Enough?: Hungering for God in an Affluent Culture

by Arthur Simon

Paperback

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Overview

In a world filled with both prosperity and poverty, how can Christians handle their finances in a way that honors God? In How Much Is Enough?, Arthur Simon takes an uncompromising look at America's wealth, reflecting what dominates the hearts and motivations of its people. He diagnoses Western civilization as sick with "affluenza," or runaway materialism, and shows readers how to reject the disease and set new priorities.
Churches, social ministry groups, and thoughtful readers will be enlightened by Simon's grasp of Western affluence against the backdrop of a world where 800 million people are chronically starving. Readers will gain a clearer understanding of how money becomes an object of worship when passion for material things is stronger than compassion for the poor. Simon's life-changing book also reveals how affluenza takes control of people's lives and goals.
Without discounting prosperity as a blessing, How Much Is Enough? proposes new pathways to living as disciples of Jesus. It suggests a myriad of solutions for taming materialism and sheds light on the profound reality that possessions may capture our hearts, but they are unable to nourish our souls.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780801064081
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Publication date: 02/01/2003
Pages: 192
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.45(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Arthur Simon is the founder and president emeritus of Bread for the World, a nonpartisan citizens' hunger lobby. His books include Bread for the World, a national Religious Book Award winner; The Politics of World Hunger, coauthored with his brother, former Illinois senator Paul Simon; and most recently Grace at the Table: Ending Hunger in God's World. Simon lives in Colmar Manor, Maryland.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments11
A Preliminary Word13
1.That Seductive Urge15
2.Fat Wallets, Empty Lives19
Two Paths
The Snare of Wealth
Hunger and Poverty
Control of the Heart
3.Hope and Purpose31
A New Identity
Earthly Pilgrims
Whole-Life Christians
Compassion for Others
Spiritual Hunger and Poverty
Returning Home
4.Rushing to Nowhere49
Putting Life in Focus
Our Children
Sabbath Wisdom
5.The Poverty of Riches61
Having or Being?
Mammon as Master
Mammon as Servant
Servant Churches
The Riches of Gratitude
6.The Sorrow of Pleasure77
Pleasure as Master
Points of Pleasure
Pleasure as Gift
Joy
7.The Weakness of Power89
The Corruption of Power
The Pretense of Weakness
Power Doing Good
8.Faces of Affluence101
Consumerism
Capitalism
The Moral Ambiguity of Affluence
Those Left Behind
9.How Much Is Enough?111
Staying behind the Joneses
No Easy Answers
The Bible on Possessions
Our Calling
The Grace of Giving
10.Living Simply So That Others May Simply Live129
Choices Have Consequences
Why Me, Lord?
A Couple of Complications
Linking Personal Efforts to Public Policy
11.Love and Justice141
Justice as a Form of Love
More Than Private Piety
Making a Difference
12.Saying "Yes" to Life155
God's "Yes" to Us
The Life of Compassion
13.Filling the Heart with Something Better than Cash163
Prayer and Solitude
Praise and Thanksgiving
A Community of Faith
Celebrating Grace
14.The Meek Inherit the Earth175
Who Are the Meek?
Inherit the Kingdom
Postscript: A Few Suggestions183
Notes187
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