Consuming Jesus

Paul Louis Metzger

Paul Louis Metzger, author of Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church, is Professor of Christian Theology and Theology of Culture at Multnomah Biblical Seminary, Portland, OR. He is also the Founder and Director of The Institute for the Theology of Culture: New Wine, New Wineskins at the seminary. His other works include The Word of Christ and the World of Culture (Eerdmans, 2003) and Trinitarian Soundings in Systematic Theology (T&T Clark International, 2005). Professor Metzger is also Editor of Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture.

About the Book

Many Americans think that race problems are a thing of the past because we no longer live under the Jim Crow laws that once sustained overt structures of segregation. Unfortunately, says Paul Louis Metzger, today we live under an updated version of segregation, through the subtle power of unchallenged norms of consumer preference.

Consumerism affects and infects the church, reinforcing race and class divisions in society. Intentionally or unintentionally, many churches have set up structures of church growth that foster segregation, such as appealing to consumer appetites. Metzger here argues that the evangelical Christian church needs to admit this fault and intentionally move away from race, class, and consumer segregation.

Challenging the consumerism that fosters ethnic and economic divisions and distorts evangelical Christianity, Consuming Jesus puts forth a theologically grounded call to restructure the church's passions and practices, transforming the evangelical imagination around a nobler, all-consuming vision of the Christian faith.

Endorsements

While articulating a profound critique of major flaws in the American evangelical church, along with affirming his love for the evangelical community, Paul Louis Metzger offers a theological model for overcoming barriers of race and class within the church.

As a Native American, I see today the negative effects of the uniquely Americanized “consumerist” version of Christianity that Dr. Metzger is unmasking for our reflective examination. I watch as missionary groups come to our reservations loaded with used clothes, good intentions, and notions of improving our way of life by providing us with stuff to make us happy. Rarely is their concern for the true issues of the kingdom: friendship and relationship with us, out of which authentic ministry partnership occurs.

Metzger speaks to this dilemma facing our Native American community: “While evangelicals talk incessantly about personal relationships, we often reduce the relational framework and relationalism to ‘my kind of people,’ which is void of any of Jesus’ concern for the neighbor.” When the dominant church culture does reach out to us, it’s often from the standpoint of giving out charity, not building community. So, after four hundred years, we remain the “perpetual mission field” for the majority culture American church; we are Natives – “those people” – needing civilization, assimilation, and remolding in view of an American consumerist lifestyle; they call this “social uplift.”

Metzger asserts that we are called to care for the weak, impoverished, marginalized, and oppressed; yet he also argues that we must fundamentally reorient the ways we address people’s plight, dying to a kind of self-serving impetus. He offers another path to address their situation, claiming that Christian faith offers energizing hope that mobilizes the church to become downwardly mobile to partner with the downtrodden to take action and do something together with them about their oppressive circumstances.

The invitation of Consuming Jesus to a life of radical reconciliation inspired and driven by the love of Jesus that overcomes the evil one and restores life-giving power to the whole church resonates with my spirit. — Richard Twiss - Rosebud Lakota/Sioux Tribe, President Wiconi International, Author One Church, Many Tribes

Paul Louis Metzger

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Removing the Blinders of Prejudice in the Church

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