MATERIALISM VS SALVATION
Defining in today’s context of salvation is not easy as the world now is full with materialism. To think using materialism way is to think everything measurable, practical and instant. Materialism paradigm can easily be traced by the irrational consumption of symbols. Satisfying need is intended to have better social status and to accumulate “more” or in a very economic term “investment”. Therefore, the consumption is emotionally-driven and unlimited one.
It must be a hard effort to convince that God is still exist in that euphoria of symbolic consumption. It needs a better and logical explanation that there is an optimism related to the role of God in making better world in the future. Satisfying explanation may be in the matter to know the fact that world need something better.
God is about goodness and refers to something ideal. He could be in a very abstract form or a real one. He will be very abstract for those who are used to think simply in a materialism way. Those who are questioning how to use everything economically to satisfy the various human needs, and those who do not believe in everything “unlimited”. However, God is very real in the matter of beliefs in an ideal world, a place or condition or universe that does not cause a sense of wrongness.
What comes to the salvation is the tendency that world is getting worse. The gap between rich and poor countries reflects the fact that “something” wrong must be happened. There is capital accumulation character in the sense of speculative behaviour. It is to say that today’s world now is in absence of morality values.
The idea of God’s presence in this world is His role as a Saviour to make world become more prosperous and “rational” through salvation. In a very practical language is that God should come with His salvation to do the good things for the world. The world poverty may not happen if there is better understanding on the equality of income distribution. There would not be happened in case that people bring morality values in economic activity. Within the materialism context morality values will be such a controller to avoid too much symbolic consumption. The idea of God and salvation could be well placed in the morality values.
Materialism in whatever forms can be considered as the trend in which there is something “wrong” with this world as the people become more on material-oriented. That orientation determines way of life in every aspect and may potentially bring the world to self-destruction. This phenomena can be best viewed economically in the form of unrealistic consumption behaviour such as emotional consumption for social status purposes, and consumption for speculative or investment purposes. Consumption which is mainly controlled by emotion will always be uncontrollable. It means that consuming more on the direction to satisfying “in-essential” purposes.
It is caused by people who are lack of morality values. There might be critical opponent questioning the impact of morality values towards materialism phenomena. Basically, the morality values promote the truth of finding the “essential” things.
In this condition there must be a solution in terms of how morality values could be well-placed as guidance to the “appropriateness”.
God is always represented in the truth of perfectness. And, what happen to this world by “appropriateness” could be achieved and workable through discussion about the relation between the presence of God and the way he can do with this world. God reveals himself as he who has mercy, faithfulness, and will-to-save through salvation.
Salvation in this context is more on building capacity of faith using “prophecy” model like what Jesus and Moses do.
The discussion of the paper will then focus on “rationalizing” the relation between the variables: materialism as the phenomena of “inappropriateness”, the presence of God in the”prophecy” model, and salvation in terms of promoting morality values. @ign_heri_sw/2009
