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An Other Kingdom
Our seduction into beliefs in competition, scarcity, and acquisition are producing too many casualties. We need to depart a kingdom that creates isolation, polarized debate, an exhausted planet, and violence that comes with the will to empire. The abbreviation of this empire is called a consumer culture.
We think the free market ideology that surrounds us is true and inevitable and represents progress. We are called to better adapt, be more agile, more lean, more schooled, more, more, more. Give it up. There is no such thing as customer satisfaction.
We need a new narrative, a shift in our thinking and speaking. An Other Kingdom takes us out of a culture of addictive consumption into a place where life is ours to create together. This satisfying way depends upon a neighborly covenant—an agreement that we together, will better raise our children, be healthy, be connected, be safe, and provide a livelihood. The neighborly covenant has a different language than market-hype. It speaks instead in a sacred tongue.
Authors Peter Block, Walter Brueggemann, and John McKnight invite you on a journey of departure from our consumer market culture, with its constellations of empire and control. Discover an alternative set of beliefs that have the capacity to evoke a culture where poverty, violence, and shrinking well-being are not inevitable—a culture in which the social order produces enough for all. They ask you to consider this other kingdom. To participate in this modern exodus towards a modern community. To awaken its beginnings are all around us. An Other Kingdom outlines this journey to construct a future outside the systems world of solutions.
We think the free market ideology that surrounds us is true and inevitable and represents progress. We are called to better adapt, be more agile, more lean, more schooled, more, more, more. Give it up. There is no such thing as customer satisfaction.
We need a new narrative, a shift in our thinking and speaking. An Other Kingdom takes us out of a culture of addictive consumption into a place where life is ours to create together. This satisfying way depends upon a neighborly covenant—an agreement that we together, will better raise our children, be healthy, be connected, be safe, and provide a livelihood. The neighborly covenant has a different language than market-hype. It speaks instead in a sacred tongue.
Authors Peter Block, Walter Brueggemann, and John McKnight invite you on a journey of departure from our consumer market culture, with its constellations of empire and control. Discover an alternative set of beliefs that have the capacity to evoke a culture where poverty, violence, and shrinking well-being are not inevitable—a culture in which the social order produces enough for all. They ask you to consider this other kingdom. To participate in this modern exodus towards a modern community. To awaken its beginnings are all around us. An Other Kingdom outlines this journey to construct a future outside the systems world of solutions.
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 19, 2016
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424 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
December 31, 2024
Disruptive thoughts for western Jesus followers. Would love to hear more solutions presented.
November 5, 2025
I suppose if an economist wrote a book on theology it would probably be just as unreadable.
I wanted to enjoy this book, I did. The problem is that the authors don’t even properly define the problem. They use economic terms like “scarcity” but then proceed to redefine them in ways that an economist would find unrecognizable.
I am not sure what I expected from this book, but I did at least expect logical consistency and a somewhat intellectually rigorous approach. I found both to be scarce.
I wanted to enjoy this book, I did. The problem is that the authors don’t even properly define the problem. They use economic terms like “scarcity” but then proceed to redefine them in ways that an economist would find unrecognizable.
I am not sure what I expected from this book, but I did at least expect logical consistency and a somewhat intellectually rigorous approach. I found both to be scarce.
January 29, 2024
I really loved this, and at the same time that won't stop me from acknowledging that at a technical level, it has some issues. I'll get those out of the way at the onset. I would say the structure leaves something to be desired, which is odd because it seems they built in some thoughtful "thesis statement" guideposts (lots of conceptual trios) only to then bob and weave around them with inconsistency. Of course, they include "a cautionary note" at the onset that this is a "slow spiraling dialogue around a core set of ideas" but I'm not sure that lets them off the hook entirely. The writing style, perhaps because of a need to synthesize three voices, was also a bit...off (the only word I can think of); somewhat staccato, aloof, and choppy with lots of anecdotes thrown in in a way that feels almost flippant. It also exclusively features the perspectives of men, including the numerous folks featured for "Commentaries" after the contents of the book. And, as others have noted, they do excel at describing the faults and flaws of the current system while leaving something to be desired with their replacements, although as they note "It is always easier to talk about the distortions than it is to talk about the possibilities," and with that said, I do think they paint a really beautiful vision of the possibilities, even if its more abstract than photographic.
In part, that's a fundamental part of the dilemma they're describing. If the book offered an efficient, concise, certain solution...it would be playing by the rules of the consumer culture it's departing from! And I think that's telling of what I consider the primary purpose (and genius) of the book: not meticulously mapping out a new path forward but pricking our consciousness to see that we're on a different path and it's not an inevitable one. I think that they do a really remarkable job of exposing the startling ways that our capitalistic ethos has become so insidiously and comprehensively ingrained, enmeshed, and intertwined with our general way of being that it's become utterly taken for granted to the point where we can't even see it, let alone imagine something different.
Using the aforementioned thesises, the core argument of the book is that we currently live under market/consumer culture that demands a contractual existence upheld by submission to the concepts of scarcity, certainty, perfection, and privatization that prioritize surplus, predictability, control, competition, and individualism. It explores an alternative neighborly culture that invites us into a covenantal aliveness rooted in abundance, mystery, fallibility, and a shared commitment to the common good enacted by hyperlocality and the practices of time, food, and listening. Honestly, it's really beautiful. I especially appreciated and enjoyed the centrality of "neighbor(hood)" as the cornerstone of their alternative vision, as that's a relationship/site that's become increasingly significant and generative for me.
And the thing is, what they suggest is simultaneously magnificantly possible and achingly out of reach. At one point, they note that "We hold the mechanistic idea in most all of our solutions that we have to fix the institutions. Individuals and the community are relegated to wait for the institutional fix. We simply play our part as members of the institution." It was deeply resonant for me as someone with a growing desperation for sweeping structural, systemic changes in response to social conditions that feel increasingly crippling yet as an individual feels pretty disconnected and detached from the possibility of change. In that sense, I love that their solution is to reclaim power at the local level, to locate the site of transformation in our neighborhoods and simple everyday choices.
As someone who has made some "downwardly mobile" choices the past 4 years alongside consistent intentional practices of neighboring (including many described here) , much of what they suggest resonated as real, practical practices of resistance to the influence and authority of the market culture. This was affirming, even reinvigorating to a point...and yet it also left me underwhelmed because I know that without those systemic shifts, many of my neighbors remain hungry, violence persists, healthcare is out of reach, and so on. But ultimately, this offers a vision for individuals and communities and that -has- to exist as larger bodies wait for a Kairos moment to occur (the Green New Deal, perhaps?). Because ordinary people have to be empowered to do more than cast a ballot every 2 years in order to pursue an aliveness outside the empty promises and seductive traps of the market culture, and I think this book offers a really wonderful starting point to that work.
In part, that's a fundamental part of the dilemma they're describing. If the book offered an efficient, concise, certain solution...it would be playing by the rules of the consumer culture it's departing from! And I think that's telling of what I consider the primary purpose (and genius) of the book: not meticulously mapping out a new path forward but pricking our consciousness to see that we're on a different path and it's not an inevitable one. I think that they do a really remarkable job of exposing the startling ways that our capitalistic ethos has become so insidiously and comprehensively ingrained, enmeshed, and intertwined with our general way of being that it's become utterly taken for granted to the point where we can't even see it, let alone imagine something different.
Using the aforementioned thesises, the core argument of the book is that we currently live under market/consumer culture that demands a contractual existence upheld by submission to the concepts of scarcity, certainty, perfection, and privatization that prioritize surplus, predictability, control, competition, and individualism. It explores an alternative neighborly culture that invites us into a covenantal aliveness rooted in abundance, mystery, fallibility, and a shared commitment to the common good enacted by hyperlocality and the practices of time, food, and listening. Honestly, it's really beautiful. I especially appreciated and enjoyed the centrality of "neighbor(hood)" as the cornerstone of their alternative vision, as that's a relationship/site that's become increasingly significant and generative for me.
And the thing is, what they suggest is simultaneously magnificantly possible and achingly out of reach. At one point, they note that "We hold the mechanistic idea in most all of our solutions that we have to fix the institutions. Individuals and the community are relegated to wait for the institutional fix. We simply play our part as members of the institution." It was deeply resonant for me as someone with a growing desperation for sweeping structural, systemic changes in response to social conditions that feel increasingly crippling yet as an individual feels pretty disconnected and detached from the possibility of change. In that sense, I love that their solution is to reclaim power at the local level, to locate the site of transformation in our neighborhoods and simple everyday choices.
As someone who has made some "downwardly mobile" choices the past 4 years alongside consistent intentional practices of neighboring (including many described here) , much of what they suggest resonated as real, practical practices of resistance to the influence and authority of the market culture. This was affirming, even reinvigorating to a point...and yet it also left me underwhelmed because I know that without those systemic shifts, many of my neighbors remain hungry, violence persists, healthcare is out of reach, and so on. But ultimately, this offers a vision for individuals and communities and that -has- to exist as larger bodies wait for a Kairos moment to occur (the Green New Deal, perhaps?). Because ordinary people have to be empowered to do more than cast a ballot every 2 years in order to pursue an aliveness outside the empty promises and seductive traps of the market culture, and I think this book offers a really wonderful starting point to that work.
February 25, 2016
My Blog post on 'An Other Kingdom': http://communitythinker.com/an_other_...
“If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it ’cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he’s poor in hisself, there ain’t no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an’ maybe he’s disappointed that nothin’ he can do ‘ll make him feel rich.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
What is nature of living in abundance? In John Steinbeck’s novel Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is making their way across the country toward California to escape the Oklahoma dust bowl in the 1930’s with the hopes of finding work. They discover that the banks who own the farms care only for profits and growth. He describes the bank as a monster who will die without growing. Later in novel, the Joads discover that a California landowner who owns a million acres is scared and unhappy. The Joad’s companion and spiritual compass, Casey, points out that despite the land owner’s attempts to feel rich by buying land, if he is poor inside, the acquisition of more land will never fulfill that need to feel rich.
Peter Block,Walter Brueggemann and John McKnight challenge the cultural pursuit of profit, production and insatiable growth in their book An Other Kingdom (2016). They offer a view of abundance based not on scarcity and greed but on a belief that we have enough.
“To believe in abundance is to believe that we have enough… It’s a sharp contrast to a culture organized around commerce, a market ideology built on scarcity and the central premise that we cannot believe in sufficiency. It declares that we can never be satisfied with what we have, with the effect that customer satisfaction is truly an oxymoron.
A neighborly culture would declare that nature no longer needs to be productive. That we have enough without more development. It calls for an end to the belief that a community or an institution or even business has to grow or die to survive and have a meaningful life. Believing in enough means we can stop identifying with progress as the path to the good life. ”
An Other Kingdom is an invitation to imagine an alternative story for our communities based on practices of neighborliness and generosity. ‘Discover an alternative set of beliefs that have the capacity to evoke a culture where poverty, violence, and shrinking well-being are not inevitable.’
“If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it ’cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he’s poor in hisself, there ain’t no million acres gonna make him feel rich, an’ maybe he’s disappointed that nothin’ he can do ‘ll make him feel rich.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
What is nature of living in abundance? In John Steinbeck’s novel Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family is making their way across the country toward California to escape the Oklahoma dust bowl in the 1930’s with the hopes of finding work. They discover that the banks who own the farms care only for profits and growth. He describes the bank as a monster who will die without growing. Later in novel, the Joads discover that a California landowner who owns a million acres is scared and unhappy. The Joad’s companion and spiritual compass, Casey, points out that despite the land owner’s attempts to feel rich by buying land, if he is poor inside, the acquisition of more land will never fulfill that need to feel rich.
Peter Block,Walter Brueggemann and John McKnight challenge the cultural pursuit of profit, production and insatiable growth in their book An Other Kingdom (2016). They offer a view of abundance based not on scarcity and greed but on a belief that we have enough.
“To believe in abundance is to believe that we have enough… It’s a sharp contrast to a culture organized around commerce, a market ideology built on scarcity and the central premise that we cannot believe in sufficiency. It declares that we can never be satisfied with what we have, with the effect that customer satisfaction is truly an oxymoron.
A neighborly culture would declare that nature no longer needs to be productive. That we have enough without more development. It calls for an end to the belief that a community or an institution or even business has to grow or die to survive and have a meaningful life. Believing in enough means we can stop identifying with progress as the path to the good life. ”
An Other Kingdom is an invitation to imagine an alternative story for our communities based on practices of neighborliness and generosity. ‘Discover an alternative set of beliefs that have the capacity to evoke a culture where poverty, violence, and shrinking well-being are not inevitable.’
April 13, 2016
An Other Kingdom offer potent critique of how consumerism robs humanity of its sustaining virtues. While the book does a good job articulating how consumer culture erodes shared values and makes actions and biases take root, the authors do not make a convincing or compelling alternative path. They try, but the return to biblical living and ethics seem quaint and ill-fitting at best. I wish they would have explored other models for other possible kingdoms, such as permaculture as metaphor, Buddhist economics, etc. As written, this little book is an accurate diagnosis of a problem, but their proposed solution is both weak and sentimental, only for Christians and not real enough to be practiced by that faith.
February 13, 2020
While I appreciate the vision of this book - and economy based on covenant and common good rather than contract and individualism - I disagree with much of its application. The only way to bring the vision into practice is through excessive government intervention into people's lives. There are many problems with much of our economy, but those can't be fixed by further regulation and redistribution.
Some of their interpretation of other writers is poor. For example, the authors reduce Adam Smith to a modern-day Libertarian. But their view shows a stereotype of Smith rather than a true reading of his work. He was far more nuanced in his approach of political economy than such an surface-reading suggests. Also, the use of Scripture to support their goals is admirable, but it is one-sided, neglecting what Scripture says about the personal responsibility people must take for their choices.
The language of neighborliness, mystery, liturgy, and covenant is humane way of presenting their arguments, but the application left much to be desired.
Some of their interpretation of other writers is poor. For example, the authors reduce Adam Smith to a modern-day Libertarian. But their view shows a stereotype of Smith rather than a true reading of his work. He was far more nuanced in his approach of political economy than such an surface-reading suggests. Also, the use of Scripture to support their goals is admirable, but it is one-sided, neglecting what Scripture says about the personal responsibility people must take for their choices.
The language of neighborliness, mystery, liturgy, and covenant is humane way of presenting their arguments, but the application left much to be desired.
June 30, 2021
An interesting and well-written book which polemicizes the Free Market Consumer culture and its ideology. The book is a collaboration of three authors, all renowned in their respective fields as social commentators. Therefore, if you are looking for polemics which demonize Libertarianism, you will find it here in abundance, nicely crafted and often witty. What is lacking however is a viable alternative market ideology which is relevant to both the modern world and the natural course of cultural evolution. What they propose instead is something called Neighborly Culture or Covenant, which seems little more than cultural regression to a Biblical style of tribalism. From my perspective, I find the concept of a culture governed by a covenant written in stone as being a suitable replacement for a social contract which can be updated every generation, a frightening dystopia.
October 20, 2017
A short but painful read of a book suffering from multiple personality disorder.
Imagine a preacher and a marxist get together and take turns espousing religion and collectivism under the guise of fighting consumer culture. Take that result and hand it to a social justice academic for some heavy editing and you have An Other Kingdom.
The criticisms are valid, but alternatives are not clearly articulated. The book seems fairly well received by many, but it did nothing for me.
Imagine a preacher and a marxist get together and take turns espousing religion and collectivism under the guise of fighting consumer culture. Take that result and hand it to a social justice academic for some heavy editing and you have An Other Kingdom.
The criticisms are valid, but alternatives are not clearly articulated. The book seems fairly well received by many, but it did nothing for me.
June 4, 2016
I’m very glad I read it. This is a very quick read, but boy does it make me think. It stirred my imagination about what is happening in our neighborhood, in our parish. Walter and John and Peter have been good friends of our parish and this book just continues to encourage us to imagine what practices and ways we might live into the reality of “an other kingdom.” Beautiful. Thank you guys!
October 26, 2016
This is a very good book that is well worth the read. It follows on from Abundant Community and combines a wonderful sociological perspective with a kingdom minded perspective from Brueggemann.
It is a challenge tot he way that Christians are living in their neighbourhoods and are influenced by culture.
It is a challenge tot he way that Christians are living in their neighbourhoods and are influenced by culture.
June 12, 2025
I thought this was really good. It's very succinct and doesn't waste your time, but it still took me a couple days to read because I had to sit and ponder some of the stuff it said.
I think even the authors know that there's no central point to the book other than going over the problems with consumer culture and how we can get to a neighborly culture, but that's not really a defect since it is so short. I've seen some people complain they focus too much on Christianity, but I think 1. What did you think you were signing up for when reading this book by a biblical scholar and 2. It's fine, you can get over it. Personally I like hearing the Jesus perspective from time to time.
Also, like they say in one of the commentaries at the end, the book is more prophetic than analytical, which is funny because the quote on the cover praises it for being "practical". It really isn't, and that's okay! It really is vibes and cultural critique, and they do provide more hands-on, practical resources at the end for people who really want to get to that other kingdom.
Anyway, if you think the world has had enough of the bullshit at this point and want to see what a society not based on greed, competition, and scarcity look like, please give this one a read.
Last note: One of the authors, Walter Brueggmann, passed away last week. Another co-author, John McKnight, passed away last November. We gotta finish what they started.
I think even the authors know that there's no central point to the book other than going over the problems with consumer culture and how we can get to a neighborly culture, but that's not really a defect since it is so short. I've seen some people complain they focus too much on Christianity, but I think 1. What did you think you were signing up for when reading this book by a biblical scholar and 2. It's fine, you can get over it. Personally I like hearing the Jesus perspective from time to time.
Also, like they say in one of the commentaries at the end, the book is more prophetic than analytical, which is funny because the quote on the cover praises it for being "practical". It really isn't, and that's okay! It really is vibes and cultural critique, and they do provide more hands-on, practical resources at the end for people who really want to get to that other kingdom.
Anyway, if you think the world has had enough of the bullshit at this point and want to see what a society not based on greed, competition, and scarcity look like, please give this one a read.
Last note: One of the authors, Walter Brueggmann, passed away last week. Another co-author, John McKnight, passed away last November. We gotta finish what they started.
December 12, 2025
2.7 stars
I never imagined defending capitalism but this book somehow got me there.
I’m not sure if this book birthed new concepts but it was a good refresher on some vocabulary and marxist concepts and I believe it served to sharpen my own thoughts and arguments towards community development. It also gave me some nuggets of insights to ruminate over (listed at the end).
However, these isolated kernels aside,
1. Many of its arguments are unclear or even inconsistent with itself. It seems to teleport between requesting for radicalisation and then suddenly concedeing
2. Unsubstantiated. Sociologically, economically and theologically. It makes a claim and runs away without proving itself possible. At most it gives very brief anecdotes of sects as an attempt to substantiate its argument some sort of an example. However, I dont feel it comes close to convincing readers of viable, sustainable or holistic ways to live life the neighbourly way.
3. Writing style was repetitive and unstructured
Summary of the little nuggest I appreciated:
* Not to despise starting locally in our own neighbourhood
* Affirming concepts of Scaricity and Abundance
* The gaps in the perspectives of the church
I never imagined defending capitalism but this book somehow got me there.
I’m not sure if this book birthed new concepts but it was a good refresher on some vocabulary and marxist concepts and I believe it served to sharpen my own thoughts and arguments towards community development. It also gave me some nuggets of insights to ruminate over (listed at the end).
However, these isolated kernels aside,
1. Many of its arguments are unclear or even inconsistent with itself. It seems to teleport between requesting for radicalisation and then suddenly concedeing
2. Unsubstantiated. Sociologically, economically and theologically. It makes a claim and runs away without proving itself possible. At most it gives very brief anecdotes of sects as an attempt to substantiate its argument some sort of an example. However, I dont feel it comes close to convincing readers of viable, sustainable or holistic ways to live life the neighbourly way.
3. Writing style was repetitive and unstructured
Summary of the little nuggest I appreciated:
* Not to despise starting locally in our own neighbourhood
* Affirming concepts of Scaricity and Abundance
* The gaps in the perspectives of the church
February 29, 2020
A meditation on the elemental forces that the market ideology operates on: Scarcity, competition, and debt.
“The free market consumer ideology has produced a social disorder; people are no longer embedded in a culture that serves the common wealth, the common good.”
I appreciate that the authors don’t try to give a simple answer to this complex problem, but instead invite the reader to begin envisioning an alternative: a vision of the worldwide church network as as something transcending and renewing culture, not a religion embedded in it. Empires want to flatten and homogenise culture, and the church has been its tool in the past. If true to its roots, the church must always offer a vibrant alternative to empire.
The market says “unless you *have* enough, you will never *be* enough.”
Church communities have been given the mission of saying in faith, to the marginalised and the least: “because you *are* enough, we will ensure that you *have* enough.”
“The free market consumer ideology has produced a social disorder; people are no longer embedded in a culture that serves the common wealth, the common good.”
I appreciate that the authors don’t try to give a simple answer to this complex problem, but instead invite the reader to begin envisioning an alternative: a vision of the worldwide church network as as something transcending and renewing culture, not a religion embedded in it. Empires want to flatten and homogenise culture, and the church has been its tool in the past. If true to its roots, the church must always offer a vibrant alternative to empire.
The market says “unless you *have* enough, you will never *be* enough.”
Church communities have been given the mission of saying in faith, to the marginalised and the least: “because you *are* enough, we will ensure that you *have* enough.”
December 19, 2019
This is an excellent resource to have on hand if you want to gain insight into why we need to be living differently and how to live in a way that is rooted in covenant not contract. A great development guideline for how to live in community with others that opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
May 2, 2023
This was honestly very needed…of course I do not get everything they said because I am growing up in the very culture they are moving towards. Honestly will recommend it to many people, it needs to be read with an open mind from both political poles. A fair assessment of the imagination that the resurrection of Jesus can truly call us towards.
June 7, 2024
The book throws back the curtain on some pretty important problems in the modern US. It has a few pokes at some good solutions, but offers really no way for the individual to contribute except to have hope that things change and look for bigger groups that are doing the right things. Overall though if more people read and are made aware maybe things will change in the future.
July 19, 2018
A critique of capitalism and a plaidoyer for a re-awakening of the neighborhood. A somewhat spiritual perspective, tough sharp worded and to the point. A somewhat spiritual perspective, tough sharp worded and to the point.
March 17, 2024
This book offers a unique look at the American economy. If you’ve read other Brueggemann writings, I can’t say there are new ideas in this book. A few new illustrations but I would prefer either Brueggemann straight up, or the legendary Peter Block. This one was not easy for me to finish.
June 30, 2017
I ended up skimming a lot of it after the first few chapters.
Good message, but it felt like it needed better editing. Seems like it could have been shorter, more focused.
Good message, but it felt like it needed better editing. Seems like it could have been shorter, more focused.
April 5, 2018
The idea is important. The execution undergraduate. The contrast between contract and covenant is a good one.
March 29, 2019
Excellent book on the pervasive and destructive presence of consumption and market economics in out lives. Great on diagnosis; slightly less helpful on solutions - but a good framework.
June 3, 2019
Highlights the toxicity of consumer culture and provides an alternative.
April 25, 2020
I wanted desperately to love this book which argues for theology that I strongly support. So poorly written, so disjointed.
July 3, 2020
I wish Brueggemann wrote the whole thing, but it was still a solid look at how a Kingdom alternative to a deified Capitalism might look.
December 5, 2020
Three old white guys, highly esteemed in each of their fields, converse about their life learnings. They’re not wrong.
February 18, 2024
Technological progress is an idol. We are seeking the wrong things. We can change that.
June 2, 2016
I read this book somewhat slowly this week, spending more than an hour everyday, giving myself permission to pause often and contemplate. It's difficult to articulate the sacredness I experienced while reading it, and how I feel like I'm a new person after reading it, or the sense of spiritual rejuvenation I feel. I have no idea if the book will meet others in the same way. All I can say is that I encountered it at the right moment in my life -- a moment where my idealism has suffered defeat and disillusionment engendered in the face of "pragmatic realities" I encountered in academic courses in international development, in the confusion I now face over what type of job I want to work in after graduating, and in the wake of reading the hyper-utilitarian reasoning of Peter Singer. After reading this book, I now feel a new sense of hope and joy in the world.
I walk on the face of this earth slower, more at rest and more at peace, more mindful and aware, with more love, I think. This week, I ate meals slowly, without reading or watching online video lectures, without music -- but in silence. I walked without listening to audiobooks or listening to music, but aware that I was walking. I paused when my body told me to pause. Listening and feeling.
In “Living Buddha, Living Christ,” Thich Nhat Hanh says:
“When the Buddha was asked, “Sir, what do you and your monks practice?” he replied, “We sit, we walk, and we eat.” The questioner continued, “But sir, everyone sits, walks, and eats,” and the Buddha told him, “When we sit, we know we are sitting. When we walk, we know we are walking. When we eat, we know we are eating.”
These are fundamentals of any spirituality, yet for this very reason, because they are in some sense common to all spiritualities, we neglect to practice them -- or at least I do. And in this book, the prophetic language Block, McKnight, and Brueggemann share evoke a similar slowing and pausing -- as resistance and as a counter-narrative to the rush and busyness of market ideology.
I didn't think I would be able to do all those things, but I thought back to times when I have been a tourist walking around a city. Do I plug in earphones all the time, or walk around with eyes glazed thinking about things I still have to get done? Or do I walk slowly and take everything in around me? When I eat at a nice restaurant, do I read a book or watch TV with my meal, or do I pay attention to every detail? It is market ideology that dictates one has to spend lots of money on plane tickets and hotel rooms, or at a fancy restaurant, for one to value and take seriously one's time and one's experiences. But there is a counter narrative that refuses this type of logic, and says I can treasure every day I have and treat it with the same care and value; I can experience the same wonder and beauty each day.
I suspect many people I know, have known this, and I am late to this beautiful way of living, but I am glad. I have woken up early a number of times this week, and felt present and at peace, compared to typical mornings which have more than often been a struggle of blurry half-consciousness. I have eaten breakfast sitting at a table, looking out a window, awake and in the presence of God (for lack of a better way of putting it), rather than stuffing my face on a bus as I usually do. I think that's what being mindful or slowing down means for me, as a person of Christian faith: reminding myself that when I walk, I walk in the presence of God, and when I eat, I eat in the presence of God, and when I sit, I sit in the presence of God, and that my time and my everyday experiences are precious not by the standards of the neoliberal market, but because they are "gifts from God", they are externally valuable because "God says they are valuable", and their value is not subject to the logic of market ideology.
I am also glad for discovering Christopher Alexander who has become someone I really admire and has provoked me to rethink my affinity for brutalist and deconstructivist architecture. The contemplations on technology have also been especially helpful for me, as someone coming from an educational background in the applied sciences. I have been thinking more now about how technology fosters or erodes social relationships, community, and neighbourliness, and how that must be the central question for any engineer that believes in human dignity.
I have also began thinking of concrete ways I can become more neighbourly. There are many concrete examples contained within this book that have provoked me to think more carefully about what I can do. I intend to dig through this book more in the coming weeks, and possibly read it again, or sections of it again. And I'd like to write more about it in the future.
I walk on the face of this earth slower, more at rest and more at peace, more mindful and aware, with more love, I think. This week, I ate meals slowly, without reading or watching online video lectures, without music -- but in silence. I walked without listening to audiobooks or listening to music, but aware that I was walking. I paused when my body told me to pause. Listening and feeling.
In “Living Buddha, Living Christ,” Thich Nhat Hanh says:
“When the Buddha was asked, “Sir, what do you and your monks practice?” he replied, “We sit, we walk, and we eat.” The questioner continued, “But sir, everyone sits, walks, and eats,” and the Buddha told him, “When we sit, we know we are sitting. When we walk, we know we are walking. When we eat, we know we are eating.”
These are fundamentals of any spirituality, yet for this very reason, because they are in some sense common to all spiritualities, we neglect to practice them -- or at least I do. And in this book, the prophetic language Block, McKnight, and Brueggemann share evoke a similar slowing and pausing -- as resistance and as a counter-narrative to the rush and busyness of market ideology.
I didn't think I would be able to do all those things, but I thought back to times when I have been a tourist walking around a city. Do I plug in earphones all the time, or walk around with eyes glazed thinking about things I still have to get done? Or do I walk slowly and take everything in around me? When I eat at a nice restaurant, do I read a book or watch TV with my meal, or do I pay attention to every detail? It is market ideology that dictates one has to spend lots of money on plane tickets and hotel rooms, or at a fancy restaurant, for one to value and take seriously one's time and one's experiences. But there is a counter narrative that refuses this type of logic, and says I can treasure every day I have and treat it with the same care and value; I can experience the same wonder and beauty each day.
I suspect many people I know, have known this, and I am late to this beautiful way of living, but I am glad. I have woken up early a number of times this week, and felt present and at peace, compared to typical mornings which have more than often been a struggle of blurry half-consciousness. I have eaten breakfast sitting at a table, looking out a window, awake and in the presence of God (for lack of a better way of putting it), rather than stuffing my face on a bus as I usually do. I think that's what being mindful or slowing down means for me, as a person of Christian faith: reminding myself that when I walk, I walk in the presence of God, and when I eat, I eat in the presence of God, and when I sit, I sit in the presence of God, and that my time and my everyday experiences are precious not by the standards of the neoliberal market, but because they are "gifts from God", they are externally valuable because "God says they are valuable", and their value is not subject to the logic of market ideology.
I am also glad for discovering Christopher Alexander who has become someone I really admire and has provoked me to rethink my affinity for brutalist and deconstructivist architecture. The contemplations on technology have also been especially helpful for me, as someone coming from an educational background in the applied sciences. I have been thinking more now about how technology fosters or erodes social relationships, community, and neighbourliness, and how that must be the central question for any engineer that believes in human dignity.
I have also began thinking of concrete ways I can become more neighbourly. There are many concrete examples contained within this book that have provoked me to think more carefully about what I can do. I intend to dig through this book more in the coming weeks, and possibly read it again, or sections of it again. And I'd like to write more about it in the future.
March 17, 2017
Not really what I was expecting from this book. It ended up being more of an economic plan which seems hard to implement in our current culture.
January 11, 2023
The view espoused by block is captivating and convincing. A kingdom way of looking at economics in the modern era.
February 22, 2017
This is a generous punch to our consumeristic face. This little book will give you lots to think about regarding our modern way of life, the illusion of progress and our market economy. It gives a viable alternative (neighbourliness) as well albeit one that certainly requires further exploration and experimentation. Recommended for those trying to lead lives of peaceful revolution against the machine of consumerism which demands obedience and acceptance for profit, happiness and progress.
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