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

Simon, Arthur

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801064082 ISBN 13: 9780801064081

Publisher: Baker Publishing Group, 2003

Synopsis

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.

About this title

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.

From the Back Cover

Why, in the face of unprecedented affluence, do so many feel discontented? Because possessions may capture the heart, but they cannot nourish the soul. How Much Is Enough? maintains that only the source of joy can give us joy. It points the way to release from captivity to things and to the joy of following Christ.

"This is one of the easiest books you will ever read-and one of the most difficult. Though there is not a word here that will be unintelligible to anyone, the challenge that Art Simon presents to every reader will leave you gasping for breath at times and at other times may prompt you to hurl the book across the room. Within the context of the United States of America at the beginning of the twenty-first century, this book may even strike some as a kind of obscenity-how dare he speak to us this way? It is, in fact, a sign of contradiction for our age, the very thing we don't want to know about, the only way that can bring us peace."
Thomas Cahill, author of How the Irish Saved Civilization, The Gifts of the Jews, and Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus

"Direct, concrete, deeply rooted, and compelling."
Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

"Art Simon deepens our trust in God's bountiful grace and thereby empowers us to apportion our wealth more openhandedly. Share this book with everyone you know-the world can't wait for justice!"
Marva J. Dawn, author of Unfettered Hope: A Call to Faithful Living in an Affluent Society

"Art Simon invites us to a new way of living that, freed from the shackles of consumption, is the way of gratitude and generosity. And he leaves it up to each of us to think through, and pray through, exactly what that means for us."
Richard John Neuhaus, editor in chief, First Things

"Superb. The distilled wisdom of a lifetime of faithful obedience and creative leadership. If American Christians would truly read and understand this powerfully simple book, the result would be a cascading abundance of joy and justice."
Ronald J. Sider, president, Evangelicals for Social Action

Arthur Simon is founder and president emeritus of Bread for the World and author of The Politics of World Hunger, Bread for the World, and Grace at the Table: Ending Hunger in God's World.

Edition details

• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801064082
• ISBN 13: 9780801064081
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192