MONDAY FEBRUARY 24 2020 NOEL GATHERING
Gathering Topic: Idolatry, Enchantment and Capitalism STRANGE GODS: IDOLATRY IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY by William T. Cavanaugh MISENCHANTMENT David Bentley Hart's review of The Enchantments of Mammon How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity by Eugene McCarraher Place and Time: Resurrection Room, Saint Noel Parish 6:30 pm to 7:00 pm Opening comments about the January 2020 Issue and suggestions for a topic for the next meeting. 7:00 pm to 8:15 pm Discussion of articles Cavanaugh claims the opposite of faith is not secularism but idolatry in new forms, e.g. the nation-state, money and material objects. McCarraher likewise claims that capitalism is not the product of disenchantment from a religious world but another kind of religion. Both see what Hart labels as misenchantment in the midst of goods produced in highly rational ways in a supposedly rational marketplace: what we are really buying are the fake promises of consumerism.