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" Consumerism is a restless spirit that is never content with any particular material thing. In this sense, consumerism has some affinities with Christian asceticism, which counsels a certain detachment from material things. The difference is that, in consumerism, detachment continually moves us from one product to another, whereas in Christian life, asceticism is a means to a greater attachment to God and to other people. We are consumers in the Eucharist, but in consuming the body of Christ we are transformed into the body of Christ, drawn into the divine life in communion with other people. We consume in the Eucharist, but we are thereby consumed by God. "
― William T. Cavanaugh , Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire
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" For Augustine, on the other hand, sin is not a power but a weakness. Augustine uses the metaphors of slavery and sickness to discuss the nature of sin. In his Confessions he says of his own condition, before his conversion, that he was "bound not by an iron imposed by anyone else, but by the iron of my own choice."11 In his anti-Pelagian treatise, The Spirit and the Letter, he says: "How, if they are slaves of sin, can they boast freedom of choice?"" Or again, "by grace comes the healing of the soul from sin's sickness; by the healing of the soul comes freedom of choice."" Sin is not subject to free choice, properly speaking. The alcoholic with plenty of money and access to an open liquor store may, in a purely negative sense, be free from anything interfering with getting what he wants; but in reality he is profoundly unfree and cannot free himself. In order
for him to regain freedom of choice, he cannot be left alone. He can only be free by being liberated from his false desires and being moved to desire rightly. "
― William T. Cavanaugh , Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire
