Commodified Communion: Eucharist, Consumer Culture, and the Practice of Everyday Life

Antonio Eduardo Alonso's book "Commodified Communion" challenges the dominant theological reflection on consumer culture in the United States, arguing that reducing theology to resistance and centering Christian hope in the Eucharist undermines our ability to talk about God's activity within a consumer culture. By reframing the question in terms of God's activity in and in spite of consumer culture, the book offers a lived theological account of consumer culture that recognizes its deceptions and traces of truth in its broken promises and fallen hopes.

Format: Hardback
Length: 200 pages
Publication date: 01 June 2021
Publisher: Fordham University Press

Winner, 2021 HTI Book Prize


This compelling exhortation sparks a diverse array of theological reflections on consumer culture in the United States. For many theologians, the Eucharist serves as the primary catalyst for Christian cultural resistance. In his book, Commodified Communion, Antonio Eduardo Alonso challenges this prevailing theological perspective on contemporary consumerism. By limiting theology to a mere resistance and centering Christian hope solely on a Eucharist that may inadequately support it, Alonso contends that this approach undermines our ability to discuss the activity of God within a consumer culture. By reframing the question in terms of God's activity within and in spite of consumer culture, this book presents a lived theological interpretation of consumer culture that acknowledges both its deceptions and glimpses of truth in its broken promises and diminished hopes.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780823294121