The Myth of the American Dream: Reflections on Affluence, Autonomy, Safety, and Power

by D. L. Mayfield

Publisher:

IVP

, 2020

Overview

2020 ECPA Top Shelf Book Cover Award

Publishers Weekly starred review.

Affluence, autonomy, safety, and power. These are the central values of the American dream. But are they compatible with Jesus’ command to love our neighbor as ourselves?

In essays grouped around these four values, D. L. Mayfield asks us to pay attention to the ways they shape our own choices, and the ways those choices affect our neighbors. Where did these values come from? How have they failed those on the edges of our society? And how can we disentangle ourselves from our culture’s headlong pursuit of these values and live faithful lives of service to God and our neighbors?

Contents

Introduction: The Myth of the American Dream

Part One: Affluence
1. The Walls of Rome
2. Who Is My Neighbor?
3. Getting Curious
4. Low, Low Prices
5. How Not to Be a Millionaire
6. Lament for the Land
7. True Generosity

Part Two: Autonomy
8. Liberty
9. The Names We Give
10. Fresh Paint
11. What Is Education For?
12. Paying Attention to My Neighbors
13. The Hospitality of Exiles

Part Three: Safety
14. The Odds
15. Mary, or We Can Never Be Safe
16. The Ship of the Doomed
17. Good Seeds
18. Waking Up Sad
19. The Happiest Place on Earth

Part Four: Power
20. Empire
21. Billboards
22. The Pioneer Mind
23. Signposts
24. Monuments and Memorials
25. Learning from Exiles

Epilogue: How to Live in Empire
Acknowledgments
Notes

Praise for The Myth of the American Dream

"D. L. Mayfield is one of our most important contemplative writers. Her meditation on the myths we live and the better story Jesus offers is hearty soul food for all who hunger for justice. Eat this book. And like any good meal, share it with those you love."

"This book is most welcome as both a challenge and an inspiration to live out our lives as Christians first and Americans second. The conflation of the US church’s spiritual identity with our political identity and the persistent pursuit of affluence, autonomy, safety, and power have become toxic to our followership with Jesus Christ and incapacitated our ability to live out and express to a watching and waiting world what the gospel is all about. This book doesn’t just startle us out of our misaligned pursuit of the American dream but also points us to a better way of how we can love God and love our neighbors in tangible ways that demonstrate to a broken world that Jesus indeed calls us to an upside-down kingdom. I’m grateful for D. L.’s ongoing commitment to her neighbors and for her experiences that she weaves into this timely and important book that ultimately points us to a better way of hope, community, and healing."

Product Details

• Title : The Myth of the American Dream: Reflections on Affluence, Autonomy, Safety, and Power
• Author: Mayfield, D. L.
• Publisher: IVP
• Publication Date: 2020
• ISBN: 9780830848249

About D. L. Mayfield

D. L. Mayfield is a writer and activist who has spent over a decade working with refugee communities in the United States. Her work has been published in McSweeney's, The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Christian Century, Sojourners, Vox, and the Englewood Review of Books. She is also the author of Assimilate or Go Home: Notes from a Failed Missionary on Rediscovering Faith. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and two children.