Tag: Eugene McCarraher

Ruskin, Blake and the Romantic Rejection of Automation (Enchantments of Mammon 3-Audio)

September 6, 2020

Eugene McCarraher’s book, The Enchantments of Mammon, explains how the Romantic movement spawned an alternative critique of capitalism, one that can be compatible with conservative as well as certain Enlightenment tendencies even while envisioning a type of communism. John Ruskin is perhaps the greatest inspiration among the Romantic authors for McCarraher. While his love of British empire and embrace of hierarchy may not be desirable, other elements of Ruskin’s thought, and romantic thought generally, are worth considering. … More Ruskin, Blake and the Romantic Rejection of Automation (Enchantments of Mammon 3-Audio)

Medieval Radicals? Fighting the Enchantments of Mammon (2-Audio)

August 29, 2020

We begin to get into Eugene McCarraher’s book The Enchantments of Mammon with the first chapter, in which he surveys the development of two kinds of Christianity, the kind that’s comfortable alongside wealth and the kind that isn’t. Throughout Christian history, before and after the Protestant Reformation, both types are to be found struggling to define Christian faith and practice. With the Protestant Reformation we see an attempt to sacramentalize work and productivity, replacing older more obviously enchanted Catholic eucharistic sacramentality. … More Medieval Radicals? Fighting the Enchantments of Mammon (2-Audio)