All consuming christmas? Religion, culture and challenges of consumption

Expository Times

Volumn 121, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 105-114

  Wenell, Karen ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Christmas; Consumption; Kingdom of God; Supramorality; Virtue ethics

Indexed keywords

EID: 74049136551     PISSN: 00145246     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0014524609348814     Document Type: Review

References (40)

1. 'Dawkins: I'm a Cultural Christian' (10 December 2007) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk-politics/7136682.stm; accessed 01/07/2009
2. Within the context of the United States, see R. W. Belk, 'Materialism and the Modern U.S. Christmas' in E. Hirschman (ed.), Interpretive Consumer Research (Pervo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 1989), 115-35
3. and R. Horsley and J. Tracy (eds), Christmas Unwrapped: Consumerism, Christ, and Culture (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2001)
4. See www.notjustforchristmas.org as well as the AHRC case study which can be found at: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/ FundedResearch/CaseStudies/Pages/ Not%20just%20for%20 Christmas.aspx; accessed 08/08/2009
5. http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Pages/ ResNetWork.aspx; accessed 08/08/2009
6. The calendar includes 31 rather than 25 days, indicating that it is 'not just for Christmas'. it can be found at: http:// www.notjustforchristmas.org/ page/Advent+Calendar; accessed 08/08/2009
7. See for instance the work of ALTERnativity. Their website can be found at www.alternativity.org.uk. See also Doing December Differently: An Alternative Christmas Handbook, edited by Nicola Slee and Rosie Miles (Glasgow: Wild Goose Publications, 2006). The handbook has three sections: (1) personal stories, poems and reflections on Christmas; (2) practical suggestions for 'doing December differently'; and (3) liturgical and creative materials. The aim is to look for ways to respond to the problematic questions raised by Christmas, for instance, 'How might we resist and protest against the wasteful excesses of the Christmas season without being puritanical killjoys? How might we protest against the myopia of cultural consumerism that blinds us to the larger demands of global poverty and injustice, and find ways of celebrating Christmas that are truly good news for the poor and disadvantaged?'
8. (Pat Pinset, 'Introduction' in Doing December Differently, 11-17, here 13)
9. R. Harrison, T. Newholm and D. Shaw, 'Introduction' in R. Harrison, T. Newholm and D. Shaw (eds), The Ethical Consumer (London: SAGE, 2005), 1-8; here, 2 (emphasis added)
10. S. McKechnie and C. Tynan, 'Social Meanings in Christmas Consumption: An exploratory Study of UK Celebrants' Consumption Rituals' Journal of Consumer Behaviour 5 (2006), 130-44; here, 141. These were only some of the concerns and practices of the participants. It is interesting to note that McKechnie and Tynan suggest that future comparative research on the behaviours of Christians, non-practicing Christians and individuals of other faiths would be fruitful
11. C. Barnett, P. Cafaro and T. Newholm, 'Philosophy and Ethical Consumption' in R. Harrison, T. Newholm and D. Shaw (eds), The Ethical Consumer (London: SAGE, 2005), 11-24; here, 17
12. J. J. Kupperman, Learning from Asian Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 171-76
13. Kupperman, Learning from Asian Philosophy, 173
14. Kupperman, 176
15. See K. Wenell, 'Testing the Boundary: Ritual, Moral and Supramoral Responsibility in Jesus and Paul' in P. Middleton, A. Paddison and K. Wenell (eds), Paul, Grace and Freedom: Essays in Honour of John K. Riches (London: T&T Clark International, 2009), 65-81; here 69-73
16. R. Black, 'Christianity and Economics: The Conversation in Zacchaeus' House' in J. Garnett, M. Grimley, A. Harris, W. Whyte and S. Williams (eds), Redefining Christian Britain: Post 1945 Perspectives (London: SCM Press, 2006), 233-41; here, 234
17. Black, 'Christianity and Economics', 240
18. http://www.notjustforchristmas.org/page/Advent+ Calendar+Alison+Phipps
19. http://www.notjustforchristmas.org/page/Advent+ Calendar+Ellen+Clark-King
20. http://www.notjustforchristmas.org/page/Advent+ Calendar+Richard+Holloway
21. http://www.notjustforchristmas.org/page/Advent+ Calendar+Frank+Trentmann+Part+1
22. http://www.notjustforchristmas.org/page/Advent +Calendar+Ann+Thorpe
23. http://www.notjustforchristmas.org/page/Advent+ Calendar+Isabelle+Szmigin
24. http://www.notjustforchristmas.org/page/Advent+ Calendar+Juliane+Reinecke
25. F. J. Flynn and G. S. Adams, 'Money Can't Buy Love: Asymmetric Beliefs about Gift price and Feelings of Appreciation' Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 45 (2009), 404-409; here 409
26. D. Shaw, 'Consumer Voters in Imagined Communities' International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 27:3/4 (2007), 135-50; here, 145
27. The entire poem can be found at: http://www.notjustfor christmas.org/page/Advent+Calendar+Raymond+Bryant
28. http://www.notjustforchristmas.org/page/Advent+ Calendar%3A+Mark+Connelly
29. http://www.notjustforchristmas.org/page/Advent+ Calendar+Bob+Holman
30. http://www.notjustforchristmas.org/page/Advent+ Calendar+Mimi+Sheller
31. http://www.alternativity.org.uk/about.html; accessed 08/08/2009
32. T. Edensor and S. Millington, 'Illuminations, Class Identities and the Contested Landscapes of Christmas' Sociology 43:1 (2009), 103-21
33. Edensor and Millington, 'Illuminations', 104
34. 'Illuminations', 109
35. K. T. Lacher, K. Patrick Meline, J. Birch, M. Brantley, and T. Carnathan, 'The Spirit of Christmas: An Ethnographic Investigation of the Christmas Ritual' Southwestern Marketing Association (1995), online: www.sbaer.uca.edu/ research/ swma/1995/pdf/toc.pdf (cited 08/08/2009)
36. Barnett, Cafaro and Newholm, 'Philosophy and Ethical Consumption', 19
37. S. K. Roll, 'Christmas: The Mirror Reflecting Us Back to Ourselves' in P. Post, G. Rouwhorst, L. van Tongeren and A. Scheer (eds), Christian Feast and Festival: The Dynamics of Western Liturgy and Culture (Leuven: Peeters, ), 519-36; here 536, emphasis added
38. See also S. K. Roll, Toward the Origins of Christmas (Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1995)
39. Peter Clarke, 'Christmas Gift Giving Involvement' Journal of Consumer Marketing 23/5 (2006), 283-91. From their study, they observe the suggestion that 'Christmas may no longer be perceived as the major occasion for giving gifts to children. Up to the 1970s, those six weeks before Christmas accounted for 80 per cent of the toy industry's sales; the subsequent pursuit of year-round marketing, together with the advent of specialist, large volume toy stores, meant toys received regular exposure and were readily available outside the Christmas season' (287)
40. http://www.notjustforchristmas.org/page/Advent+ Calendar%3A+Daniel+Miller