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Kind words for
On Earth as It is in Advertising? Moving from Commercial Hype to Gospel Hope
"A fascinating and long overdue look at advertising from a truly Christian perspective. Van Eman does a masterful job of demonstrating how the 'simulated gospel' of advertising perverts and distorts Jesus's radical message of love and compassion. Van Eman vividly illustrates that advertising's seductive promise of happiness and fulfillment through consumption and greed leaves us spiritually impoverished and endangers our world."—Jean Kilbourne, author of Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel
"We all knew that advertising was making consumerism into a pseudoreligion, but Sam Van Eman is the first one to actually analyze what is going on in the advertising media and challenge its deceptions [from a Christian perspective]. This is a must-read for anyone who is trying to critique our culture and stand against its debilitating effects."
—Tony Campolo, author of Speaking My Mind
"An important, urgent, penetrating analysis of how today's pervasive materialism seduces us and how biblical faith liberates us."
—Ronald J. Sider, author of Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience
"The question of our time is whether we allow the consumer society to teach each of us to think of ourselves as the most important thing on the planet, or whether we manage to learn the lesson that maturity—that is, happiness—requires us to live in and for community, for things larger than ourselves. Sam Van Eman offers some very wise and very straightforward guidance in this fine and compassionate book."
—Bill McKibben, author of The Age of Missing Information
"In a day and age when our children and teens are the most targeted market segment in the world, we are failing to understand just how deeply the pervasive marketing machine is shaping our individual and collective worldviews. Sam Van Eman has struck a chord with me as he takes us past advertising's surfacy and enticing fluff to get at the real messages we buy long before we purchase the goods and services. This book will help you and those you influence see through the fluff in order to become less like the world and more like Christ."
—Walt Mueller, Center for Parent / Youth Understanding
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—Art Simon, author of How Much Is Enough? Hungering for God in an Affluent Culture
"If, as Dallas Willard insists, distraction is the greatest problem keeping us from a more vital experience of faith, then surely advertising is distraction's most effective agent. As Sam Van Eman shows, advertising comes at us from every angle, in all our waking moments. It appeals to our most vulnerable desires and promotes a gospel of half-truths that deceives many, leading them into idolatry and self-worship. The first line of defense against the "SimGospel," as Van Eman calls it, is a renewed mind, one that understands the working of advertising, identifies its distortions, and is strengthened in the Lord to resist the many and varied temptations advertising employs in order to sell us stuff. Van Eman's concise analyses and helpful prescriptions can equip us to negotiate the dangerous curves and slippery slopes of advertising so that we will be less likely to be distracted from our kingdom calling to live for Christ."
—T. M. Moore, author of Redeeming Pop Culture
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For more on my rocky emotional history with this book, read Check for $97.
To order:
- Go to On Earth's homepage at Wipf & Stock. Ordering from here will benefit me with a small kickback.
- Find a few reader opinions and sources for the original published by Brazos Press here.
- Call or email Byron Borger at my favorite mom and pop bookstore, Hearts and Minds Books.
Other writing:
I am the Culture Editor for The High Calling. THC is a top-100 Christian website where I play with a fine team of editors and writers, together hosting conversations about work, life and God. A favorite? Top Ten Reasons to Hope.When I can, I try to write articles elsewhere also. Here are two I like: Melinda Mae Missiology, and The Middle Ground. Read more...
