This post is a republication with permission of Adrian Lowe’s second article exploring how our existence is shaped either by God or Mammon. The original was published at Substack:
https://adrianslowedown.substack.com/p/mammon-the-market-and-the-commodification
The universe is composed of subjects to be communed with, not objects to be exploited
Wendel Berry
The free market is one of the most influential ideologies in the developed world, and it has become a cornerstone of Western civilization. The promise of a free, fair system of trade – untethered from government control, allowing for private ownership and opportunity for “all” – has a utopian ring to it. Economists and politicians often speak of its virtues in terms that seem to attribute salvific power to it. However, if we’re honest, we all know this ideology may be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In the shadow of what appears to be one of the West’s greatest strengths lies an even bigger weakness. Beneath the neatly shorn sheep guiding its every move is a gargantuan and greedy machine called Mammon. None of us can escape its power; it has become an intrinsic part of the architecture of our collective existence. Our “living, moving, and being” (Acts 17:28) are subject to the automaticity of Mammon.
At a macro level, I suggest the Mammonic Machine is influencing the proponents of globalization, an economic order that is relationally disruptive, in that its aim is to connect the world through trade and migration (labour movement). This results in cultural dislocation as borders are erased and a sense of place and locality are degraded, all of which, according to the Genesis creation narrative, are the foundation for individual and collective meaning and are a core requirement for humankind to flourish. At a micro level, individuals have an insatiable appetite for more, newer, bigger, and better, fuelling our acquisitive lifestyle. Our fear of scarcity and our idolatrous affection for comfort and security feed our tendency towards limitless consumption and accumulation.
The Pressure of Mammon
So it is that the Mammonic Machine exerts pressure on the marketplace, demanding obsolescence to be built into design, as we have come to obsess about all things ‘new.’ It dictates that we have a system of mass production to sustain our collective desire for ‘more for less.’ Disposability thus comes to lie at the core of our throwaway culture, resulting in the devaluation and de-sacralization of belongings as their identity is reconfigured from being the gifts of a good God into commodities.
The Power of Mammon
Of course, the power exerted by Mammon is not limited solely to the marketplace. It is Mammon that is the unseen power behind the commodification of life in its entirety. In truth, Mammon and its economic value system have become the lens through which we perceive reality. This commercialisation of life results in human existence—including individuals, their bodies, labour, and natural resources—being treated as commodities, objects of economic value to be bought, sold, or exploited. In this process, life itself is reduced to something that can be exchanged in the marketplace, with its value determined not by inherent dignity or purpose, but by its economic worth or utility. This often involves turning human beings, relationships, or natural resources into objects of profit, stripping them of their endowed sacred or intrinsic value and viewing them primarily through the lens of commercialism or consumerism.
‘Silver and Gold’
The Bible has much to say about Mammon’s deceptive and dehumanising ideology, its accompanying narrative around the controlling power of ‘silver and gold’ and its idolatrous status—idolatry being an Old Testament metaphor for the commodification, commercialisation, and “financialisation” of human existence, another way of saying Mammon!
The Exodus narrative speaks extensively about the domineering and enslaving economic, social, and spiritual power of ‘silver and gold’ that held God’s people captive for 400 years, and, of course, of how Yahweh defeated them and liberated Israel from their internment. ‘Silver and gold’ were the currency of Egypt and symbolised the commodification of life under Pharaoh. This was a world of coercion (the drive to perform better and produce more) and competitive advantage. Pharaoh’s insatiable appetite for the accrual of wealth and power became the engineering that formed the reality of life in Egypt. Driven by anxiety (an absence of peace), fear (of loss), and restlessness (an inability to stop), Pharaoh turned to ‘silver and gold’ for his salvation, constructing for himself gods of ‘silver and gold.’ Later, Yahweh will expressly warn against the idolization of the commodity market. Pharaoh’s surrender to the gods of ‘silver and gold’ governed the architectural framework for life in Egypt.
The Exodus narrative exposes the results of a commodity-driven market economy in terms of its impact on people. The intrinsic sacred value of human life and labour is degraded and demeaned; it is no longer determined by inherent dignity and purpose but by its economic worth and utility in the marketplace. The sons and daughters of God lose their true identity as they become slaves for the monolithic machine called Mammon.
It must come as no surprise that following Israel’s liberation from a life codified by the gods of ‘silver and gold,’ Yahweh gives clear instructions on how to remain free from its stranglehold. Moses receives a mandate for the way in which Yahweh will reconstitute and reengineer what being the community of God looks like.
“I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery.
“You must not have any other god but me.
“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. (Exodus 20:2-5)
First, Yahweh reminds them of their rescue from the Egyptian Leviathan, the powers of sin that had enslaved them. This exhortation is repeated numerous times, for example:
“…be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Deuteronomy 6:12)
In effect, God is saying, ‘don’t forget that you were once slaves!’ His instructions are clear: the idolatrous social, economic, and spiritual model of Egypt is over. Miriam makes this clear in her celebratory prophetic song where she declares that the ‘horse and the rider have been thrown into the sea.’ This is the metaphor used for God’s redemption of His people. The horse and the rider symbolize Pharaonic power. Judgment is executed on the systems of power that held God’s people captive.
Rabbinic thought suggests that the horse was the symbol of the culture of Egypt. When the Israelites sang of the downfall of both ‘horse and rider,’ they were expressing their appreciation of the fact that not only were Pharaoh and his slave masters being removed from the scene, but so, too, the oppressive culture of Egypt coming to an end. Throughout the Bible, the culture of Egypt is identified with the horse, which is a symbol of militarism and the ideology that ‘might makes right.’ The horse is also a symbol of arrogance and pride. When God brought down Pharaoh and his cohorts, He also removed from the world stage a belief system that justified crushing and enslaving other human beings. The removal not only of the dictator but of his doctrine, and not only of the tyrant but of his theology, is part of the pattern of history from a Jewish perspective.
Later in the text, Yahweh provides greater clarity in instructing Israel:
“…..do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.” (Exodus 20:23)
One of the hallmarks of this new community, liberated from their slavery, is revealed in God’s command to Israel that they do not make idols of ‘silver and gold.’ This is an invitation to live together in a counterintuitive way to that of the Pharaonic, Mammonic love of money. He also foresees their temptation to a life of dualism (‘You shall not make gods of silver to be with me’ Exodus 20:23)—the attempt to serve two masters, as Jesus puts it. God knows Mammon is enslaving; its mantra calls for our enhanced performance. It demands we work harder and longer in order to meet the desire it places in our hearts for ‘more.’ This love of money exercises coercive economic power. It also divides people as it stratifies society by creating ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots,’ rich and poor. In effect, what Yaheweh gives are guidelines for staying out of slavery by living a life free from the commodification and productization of existence. It’s a lesson on how to be and to remain fully human, protecting the Imago Dei and thus revealing Yahweh as the Creator who loves His creation.
AMOS – What Happens When Commodity Becomes King?
I am part of my church family’s preaching team. Recently, we decided to speak on the minor prophets, and without thinking too much, I volunteered to speak on the book of Amos. I hadn’t read it for a while, but I committed to doing it. When I re-read the book, I began to wish I hadn’t! However, as I laboured through the collection of seemingly disjointed poems and declarations, I began to see how history can repeat itself, how not heeding Yahweh’s plea to ‘remember’ but instead forgetting, results in a return to captivity—slavery to the gods of ‘silver and gold,’ and the consequential spiritual, social, and economic decay that follows in its wake.
In summary, the narrative tells us that Israel was enjoying unparalleled economic prosperity under the rule of King Uzziah of Judah and King Jeroboam II. However, this success led to a market ideology assuming an idolatrous status. As all idols do, they demanded devotion, surrender, and obedience—the Mammonic Machine would accept no less. God plucks Amos, a nobody, a shepherd and fig grower, out of obscurity to confront the idolatry of the rich and powerful. Their totemisation of economic success resulted in them forgetting God and His ways. To quote Walter Brueggemann, “Prosperity breeds amnesia.” The people had forgotten God’s deliverance from the corrupt, oppressive, and corrosive socio-economic system of Egypt that held their forebears captive for over 400 years. They had become captivated by the same Pharaonic, Mammonistic system that had dehumanized a previous generation.
Amos is uncompromising in speaking the truth and identifies how Israel’s growing affection for ‘silver and gold’ is contemporizing and re-engineering their individual and collective life.
‘You can’t wait for the Sabbath day to be over and the religious festivals to end so you can get back to cheating the helpless. You measure out grain with dishonest measures and cheat the buyer with dishonest scales. And you mix the grain you sell with chaff swept from the floor.’ (Amos 8:5-6)
The prophet challenges a worldview shaped by personal gain and private profit that had resulted in the re-codification of their values and behaviours and confronts a form of worship that has become disconnected from the way they live, work, and do business. Socio-economic injustice was rife, as the gods of commodity exerted their power and malformed reality. Amos articulates the many ways in which these gods were disfiguring and dehumanizing Yahweh’s people. Let me mention just three.
1: The productization of people and relationships
At the heart of Christian ethics is the belief that human beings are made in the imago Dei, or the image of God. This concept, rooted in Genesis 1:26-27, holds that all humans possess intrinsic dignity and worth because they reflect God’s nature. Unlike other aspects of creation, human beings are endowed with rationality, free will, and the capacity for moral decision-making. They are not objects to be used for personal gain, nor are they products to be bought and sold. However, in a world, ancient or modern, where the Free Market is idolized and venerated, lives are commodified, people become products to be traded, and relationships are de-sacralised.
‘…because they sell righteousness for money and the needy for a pair of sandals’. (Amos 2:6)
When God is forgotten and economic success (‘silver and gold’) becomes our god, the intrinsic God-given human value of individuals is swallowed up in a market ideology. People become products in the market and a means to satisfy the personal desires and needs of others. Modern capitalism and consumerism reduce human beings to mere economic units, depriving them of their inherent worth as created, image-bearing beings.
This process of commodification could be described as relocating relational goods from the humanistic sphere and placing them in the commodity sphere. Mary Harrington, writer and contributing editor of UnHerd, says, ‘Commodification takes something out of the context of relationship, isolates it, and gives it a market value other than that which relationship bestows’. . She cites the porn industry as a powerful example of this and makes the point that ‘whilst the industry might say that this is about self-expression and empowerment, the truth is that this is a cold-blooded, merciless commercial machine that hacks human pleasure centres for profit’. Sex is made homeless; it is extracted from the context of relationship and bought and sold as a commodity.
2: The primacy of personal gain and private profit
A radical individualism has been at work on both the political right and left over many decades, and this too has contributed to the commodification of the human being and to technocratic tendencies, both of which are dehumanizing and undermine our ability to build the common good together.
One of the roots of the commodification of life is the consumer culture that dominates much of the modern world. This culture encourages individuals to define their worth and happiness in terms of material possessions and measures of economic success. Advertising, media in all its forms, and the marketplace constantly reinforce the idea that life’s meaning is found in pursuing an acquisitive lifestyle regardless of the cost to others.
‘You trample on the poor and extract taxes from him, you have built houses hewn of stone’ (Amos 5:11)
From a Christian perspective, this consumerist mindset is deeply problematic because it distracts people from the true purpose of life: to love God and neighbour (Matthew 22:37-40).
Mammon and his commodification of life foster a culture of individualism and greed, which is antithetical to the Christian virtues of humility, generosity, and community. It leads people to view relationships, experiences, and even themselves through the lens of consumerism. This is particularly evident in the rise of social media, where personal experiences, bodies, and even personalities are commodified for likes, followers, and brand endorsements.
And when we see life through a commercial lens, where trading has invaded, conquered, and then codified collective behaviours, our common socio-economic life becomes fractured as it centres around ‘my (individual) prosperity’ at the expense of my neighbour.
Brueggemann captures this so well in his commentary on Psalm 73 where he describes the “two ways” before which the faithful stand: a way of self-enhancing commodity and a way of relational communion. He describes these as the choice that is before our own society, and before every society. ‘Our society in its dominant forms is now committed to the rat race of self-sufficiency and self-enhancement, the pace of which is set by greed, celebrity, and violence that contradicts the depth of human life. In that lethal rat race, the refocus of faith is the (re)discovery that such a set of priorities has no staying power. What lasts is a life of communion in obedience that is preoccupied, not with the love of self, but with the love of God and the love of neighbour.’ (From Whom No Secrets are Hid – Introducing the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann)
3: Truth has only a commercial value
Amos points to the depths to which the god of the markets, the god of commodity, Mammon, will go in that ultimately it makes even truth a commodity to be traded for commercial gain.
Listen to this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the destitute in the land.
You say, “When will the new moon festival be over, so we can sell grain?
When will the Sabbath end, so we can open up the grain bins?
We’re eager to sell less for a higher price,
and to cheat the buyer with rigged scales!”
As the prophet points out, when we forget God and become worshippers of the god of economic success, this idol, as all idols do, demands our absolute devotion. Not only that, but all idols also require sacrifice. Mammon – ‘silver and gold’—has its own accompanying sacrificial system. In a world where this god is revered, loving neighbourliness is reconfigured by a market economy and, in doing so, people and relationships are commercialized and productized for personal gain and private profit. Eventually, honesty, integrity, and righteousness will find themselves as an offering on its altar. Truth can become whatever it needs to be to ensure the continuation of success and is corrupted for the sake of maintaining the momentum and progress of the Mammonic machine.
Final thoughts
That all sounds a little bleak! As I have already mentioned in my first essay on the subject of Mammon I am going to point to the hope that the Gospel offers and in doing so suggest some countercultural, counterintuitive ways of thinking and living. In my next essay, I will explore the concept of Repair as a form of resistance against the forces that seek to commodify every aspect of our existence. This will not only be a philosophical reflection but also a call to practical action—ways in which we can tangibly embody this hope.
Before I sign off, I want to leave you with a couple of lines from John’s Gospel where he quotes Jesus Himself.
‘“I no longer call you slave, because the master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me”’ Jesus Christ (John 15:15)
Isn’t this simply beautiful! In just a few words, Jesus dismantles one worldview and ushers in another. He shifts his hearers from a paradigm of servitude to one of freedom, replacing hierarchical, transactional relationships with the radical intimacy of friendship.
Jesus doesn’t see human beings as instruments of profit, stripped of their endowed sacred value through the lens of commercialism and consumerism – slaves. His words don’t just challenge economic paradigms; they upend the entire value system that measures human worth by productivity and profit. Instead of being trapped in a transactional existence, He calls people into a relational, dignified existence—one of friendship, trust, and intrinsic worth. He sees them through the lens of the Father’s love, an emancipatory love that restores what has been degraded and reclaims the Imago Dei in each person.