Currently waiting to dive into: The Uses of Idolatry by William T. Cavanaugh 📚

I’m waiting because a) I have a few projects around the house that require the attention I’d prefer to give to reading, and b) Cavanaugh’s gracious voice in his attitude toward politics and culture is one that I have a feeling I’m going to need a lot more of after November 5th.

But I couldn’t resist reading the intro a couple weeks ago.

I want, in a way, to present idolatry in a sympathetic light. As St. Paul tells the Athenians in Acts 17, their proclivity to worship is evidence that they are groping for God, and may still find God. Idolatry critique helps to overcome the binary of believers/nonbelievers by showing that we all believe in something; we are spontaneously worshiping creatures whose devotion alights on all sorts of things, in part because we are material creatures, and the material world is beautiful. Following an invisible God is hard for material creatures, so we fixate on things that are closer to hand. Idolatry critique applies equally to those who profess belief in God and those who don’t. We all worship, and we all worship badly, to greater and lesser degrees. Idolatry critique is therefore best understood first and foremost as self-critique, an exercise in cultivating the virtue of humility. I am not so much interested in “idolatry” as a stable and univocal master category by which we can critique others and get our own worship in order; the only remedy for idolatry is ultimately an unmanageable encounter with the living God, one that throws all of our lives into question.