This is a talk by Dr. William T. Cavanaugh, author of The Uses of Idolatry. It was originally given for the Center for Catholic Social Thought, October 9, 2025. We thought it was so good we asked if we could share it with our audience, and we got it from both Dr. Cavanaugh and the Center for Catholic Social Thought.
The Uses of Idolatry, by William T. Cavanaugh, deals with the economic and political maladaptations of our day due to idolatry. The transfer of religious zeal and reverence towards politics and material things is, of course, ground that has been covered differently in books as diverse as Eugene McCarraher’s The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity, and my Ideological Possession and the Rise of the New Right. This book begins with the contributions of Max Weber and Charles Taylor, and Cavanaugh details how his argument differs from theirs.