THE SIMPLE LIFE : The Christian Stance Toward Possessions
review by Pete Hammond
Vernard Eller
Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1973
Paperback 122 pages

Focusing on Jesus’ “Sermon On The Mount,” some Pauline writings and the early church “Letter to Diognetus, Eller offers help in the constant tug of material possessions in modern life. He then lets Soren Kierkegaard teach us about his views of the simple life. Here we find no avoidance of the complications of being a privileged people in a wealthy nation. The conclusion is what the author calls “Christian hedonism,” meaning the enjoyment of God, and not making an idol out of simple living “Christian simplicity is not anxious scrupulocity about possessions... rather, it is joyous freedom regarding them.” (page 121-2) This older work is a needed antidote for the confusion of the day and the distortions of the modern “prosperity gospel” preached by far too many leaders in our success oriented middle-class, some television evangelists and some Black pastors.

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From The Marketplace Annotated Bibliography, used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515, USA. www.ivpress.com
Read the Introduction.