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Rating: 
Summary: The Good Life: Genuine Christianity for the Middle Class (Th
Review: "The consumer economy promises great benefits," writes McCarthy (theology, Mount St. Mary's Coll.; Sex and Love in the Home: A Theology of the Household), "but ironically, it makes our everyday lives nearly impossible to manage." The author contends that we are in bondage to a frazzled market economy and that the freedom from this yoke comes from Christ's mandate to "Seek first the kingdom of God." With its contemporary recasting of Matthew 6:25-34, the book aspires to reach a broad audience of laypeople, students, and clergy. It's one volume in "The Christian Practice of Everyday Life," a series by Brazos Press, the avant-garde division of Baker Books that veers into more experimental and controversial territory than its conservative parent company. This book succeeds in its "practical theology" and its challenge to America's economic and romantic notions, yet its tone is one of humility and genuineness-it's not a jeremiad or tirade. Those who identify with the Christian faith will enjoy this book and its call for middle-class asceticism. However, those outside the fold will not be moved. Recommended for Christian collections in public and academic libraries
Rating: 
Summary: Missleading Title
Review: I respectfully disagree with the other evaluations of the book, it is a long rant; yes, a tirade. The book is the author's personal reflections on society, that anyone who is schooled in the christian faith can figure out themselves. The title suggests that the reader will find the book to be a resource a place of suggestions to practice christian life, however, that is not what the book is. Each chapter is basically a critical essay, and leaves the reader more dispondent about the direction of the universal christian church and how christian life fits into the larger society. The last chapters refer to eastern religions and yet on the cover it says, "genuine christianity for the m iddle class". Don't waste your money.
Rating:
Summary: www.wordsntone.com
Review: Politicians target the "middle-class" for their votes. Businesses and entrepreneurs see the "middle-class" as a market niche. The vase majority of churches throughout the US seem to appeal mainly to those in the middle-class component of the population. Some critics of middle class Christians have argued that they essentially prefer the status quo (like their unchurched and non-christian neighbors) and do not have, as a social group, the capacity to make significant contributions, and as a result, some could add meaningful contributions to the mission of the church. The Good Life will move middle-class Christian readers beyond their attachment to the market-share of business and past their complicit relationship to the consumerism mentality within American culture. David McCarthy seeks to help the middle-class to be more than a target of market-economics and political rhetoric. He applies biblical principles to help those in this particular class of people to respond to Jesus' mandate to seek first the kingdom of God. McCarthy argues that middle-class Christians have a misguided attachment to the world. He maintains the Christian life should require less "stuff." This book offers guidance to the middle-class Christian community whose relationships to people, family, home, neighborhoods, work, and even to the earth, are determined more by the market economy than by Christian principles. As American Christians it is difficult to not be caught up in American's cultural, political, and economic benefits. Harder still to not be defined by them or to seek meaning through them. The Good Life will help the reader to live beyond all this and discover ways to "seek the Kingdom of God." I recommend that middle-class churches and their leadership ought to consider McCarthy's book as a guide for mission development, even a framework for a Sunday morning sermon series. Church small groups would benefit from reading it together.
Rating: 
Summary: Kingdom ethics in a commercial work
Review: Wonderfully written, and sharply packaged by Brazos (Baker). McCarthy is a theo. prof. at a Catholic college in Maryland, probaly in his late-30s. He uses everyday anecdotes to expose the struggle middle class suburban Christains are in, ofetn without knowing it. The book is 27 small chpaters broken into 4 categories: People (friendship, marioage, sex and singleness, God and neighbor, etc.), Places (home and hospitality, country and nation, etc.); Things (debts, work); and God (breaking down the elements of teh APostle's Creed). James K. A. Smith fo Calvin College writes on a blurb on teh back cover: "How can we resist the empire;s demand for our allegiance? This remains a fundamental question for Christain discipleship, and in The Godo Life, McCarthy poses it afresh. But now the empire is not Rome but teh market, and the arena of challenge is not the coliseum but Wal-Mart. He offers challenging wi=dom to those of us in minvans who are trying to discern what God's disruptive grace means for our friendships, our nieghborhoods, and our consumer habits." Another blurb: "Don't let the charm of his style or his mastery of the telling detail mislead you. McCarthy's The Good Life is both a sustained critique of the consumerism that enslaves and a profound account of how God's graciousness can set us free. This is theology at its best. A how to book about something that matters." My biggest dissapointment with the book -- it does not emphasize strongly enough the centrality of teh Church. Chap. 25 on teh "One, Holy, APostolic Church," was very insightful. BUt any study oif Christian ethics needs to communicate clearly to our individualist culture -- the Church is not one means to the end, it IS the end. The Church isn't a tool for the individual Christain to use for their personal growth, it is the object of the Christian life. The Gospel is not Christ. It is Christ and his Church. McCarthy may understand that, and certainly has plenty of Gospel-driven things to say about the centrality of ciommunity, but I didn't think that point was made clearly enough. Also, a good index would have helped. I have not read this cover to cover yet, but found myself flipping back and forth. I may have missed things. But I didn't see anything on teh role of the Lord's Supper in discipleship (funny for a Presbyterian to be criticizing a Catholic for that!). Overall, one of the best things I have read on the topic. I'm going to buy more copies for friends and parishoners.
Rating:
Summary: Kingdom ethics in a commercial work
Review: Wonderfully written, and sharply packaged by Brazos (Baker). McCarthy is a theo. prof. at a Catholic college in Maryland, probaly in his late-30s. He uses everyday anecdotes to expose the struggle middle class suburban Christains are in, ofetn without knowing it. The book is 27 small chpaters broken into 4 categories: People (friendship, marioage, sex and singleness, God and neighbor, etc.), Places (home and hospitality, country and nation, etc.); Things (debts, work); and God (breaking down the elements of teh APostle's Creed). James K. A. Smith fo Calvin College writes on a blurb on teh back cover: "How can we resist the empire;s demand for our allegiance? This remains a fundamental question for Christain discipleship, and in The Godo Life, McCarthy poses it afresh. But now the empire is not Rome but teh market, and the arena of challenge is not the coliseum but Wal-Mart. He offers challenging wi=dom to those of us in minvans who are trying to discern what God's disruptive grace means for our friendships, our nieghborhoods, and our consumer habits." Another blurb: "Don't let the charm of his style or his mastery of the telling detail mislead you. McCarthy's The Good Life is both a sustained critique of the consumerism that enslaves and a profound account of how God's graciousness can set us free. This is theology at its best. A how to book about something that matters." My biggest dissapointment with the book -- it does not emphasize strongly enough the centrality of teh Church. Chap. 25 on teh "One, Holy, APostolic Church," was very insightful. BUt any study oif Christian ethics needs to communicate clearly to our individualist culture -- the Church is not one means to the end, it IS the end. The Church isn't a tool for the individual Christain to use for their personal growth, it is the object of the Christian life. The Gospel is not Christ. It is Christ and his Church. McCarthy may understand that, and certainly has plenty of Gospel-driven things to say about the centrality of ciommunity, but I didn't think that point was made clearly enough. Also, a good index would have helped. I have not read this cover to cover yet, but found myself flipping back and forth. I may have missed things. But I didn't see anything on teh role of the Lord's Supper in discipleship (funny for a Presbyterian to be criticizing a Catholic for that!). Overall, one of the best things I have read on the topic. I'm going to buy more copies for friends and parishoners.
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