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Christian MaterialismChristian Materialism is the combination of the theology, concepts and holy writings of Christianity with the philosophy of materialism, which places primary importance on material objects and their interrelationships. History Historically, materialism and Christianity have generally been at odds. This is due on the one hand to anti-materialist passages in Christian scripture; and on the other to the denial by most materialist thinkers of the existence of the kinds of spiritual realities that were fundamental to the traditional Christian church. Despite these discrepancies, however, there have been many attempts to reconcile the two in various ways. One such attempt is found in the writings of a Spanish Roman Catholic saint of the twentieth-century Josemara Escriv, who wrote of the need to invest the material realities of everyday life with a spiritual sensibility. A rather different approach to the same divide is found in present day America. American Christian Materialism In late twentieth-century America, modern Christian Materialism gradually emerged from the earlier phenomena of "Christian fundamentalism." The explicit goal of the movement was to reverse a perceived American social decline, which had accompanied the rise of individualism and the breakdown of traditional communities. In order to accomplish this the nascent Christian Materialists needed to establish a viable alternative to the then-ascendant philosophy of Materialism, an objective which they eventually accomplished through imitating, assimilating and reinventing many aspects of mainstream American material culture. As its pioneers had hoped, Christian Materialism proved extremely effective at gaining new converts, particularly within a younger demographic. As a result, even though it never identified itself publicly as a movement, Christian Materialism nevertheless became increasingly influential within American Christianity, and eventually within the United States of America as a whole (where it played a decisive role in the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004). As we enter the twenty-first century, Christian Materialism has become so successful that its underlying assumptions have begun to be integrated into mainstream American Christianity. Although many churches and individuals continue to question and oppose the Christian Materialist agenda and beliefs, the power and the influence of it as a worldview shows no sign of decreasing. Hallmarks of Christian Materialism See also External link The Fight for Reality
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