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Christianity

Christian attitudes toward consumption are formed in the tension between celebrating and sharing the goodness of creation and an awareness of the sinfulness of greed and the unjust distribution of goods.

Biblical Teachings

Christianity inherited from Judaism an understanding of the right use of goods as founded on the Exodus: God's liberation of the Israelites from Egypt; leading them to the Promised Land “flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:8). This experience of liberation and gift grounded a positive evaluation of all creation. The land's bounty was celebrated in a rich cycle of agricultural feasts and temple sacrifice. The quotidian details of production and consumption were sacralized in a temporality of labor and Sabbath, in restrictions on harvest and ownership (gleaning, Jubilee), and in a detailed ...

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