In The Uses Of Idolatry, William T. Cavanaugh Offers A Sustained Argument That Worship Has Not Waned In Our Supposedly 'secular' World. Rather, The Target Of Worship Has Changed, Migrating From The Explicit Worship Of God To The Implicit Worship Of Things. Cavanaugh Examines Modern Idolatries And The Ways In Which Humans Become Dominated By Our Own Creations. Cavanaugh Is Critical Of Modern Idolatries, But Also Sympathetic. He Sees In Idolatry A Deep Longing In The Human Heart For The Transformation Of Our Lives. We All Believe In Something, He Argues. We Are Worshipping Creatures Whose Devotion Alights On All Sorts Of Things. Following An Invisible God Is Difficult For Material Creatures, So We--those Who Profess Belief In God And Those Who Don't--fixate On Things That Are Closer To Hand. Ranging Widely Across The Fields Of History, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, And Cultural Studies, Cavanaugh Presents A Sympathetic But Critical Account Of How And Why We Sacrifice Ourselves And Others To Gods Of Our Own Design. -- Introduction: Everybody Worships -- Max Weber's Polytheism -- Charles Taylor's Naivete -- Idolatry In The Scriptures -- Augustine On Idolatry As Self-worship -- Marion On Idolatry As A Mirror To The Self -- The Splendid Idolatry Of Nationalism -- The Unsplendid Idolatry Of Consumerism -- Incarnation And Sacrament. William T. Cavanaugh. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.