The Invention of Clutter and the New Spiritual Discipline of Decluttering

IF 0.1 0 RELIGION International Journal of Practical Theology Pub Date : 2021-01-13 DOI:10.1515/ijpt-2020-0062

Christy Lang Hearlson

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Abstract

Abstract This essay argues that the popular global decluttering movement epitomized in Marie Kondo is a new spiritual discipline tailored to a particular cultural moment in which members of affluent societies, especially women, are caught between the shame of displaying too much “stuff” at home and the guilt of discarding it. After suggesting reasons for the movement’s neglect by theologians, the essay offers a brief history of the “invention of clutter.” Through this history, the essay frames decluttering as an expression of “makeover culture” that posits a timeless aesthetic self. Decluttering functions as a spiritual practice of late consumer capitalism that converts its followers to a disposition of detachment through procedures that mirror Christian conversion. While appreciating the attention the movement shows to women’s domestic lives and to material things, the essay offers a theological critique of the movement’s construction of an aesthetic self who is absolved of guilt by escaping time and the ecological web into private, timeless space. The essay commends instead a narrative, ecological self whose engagement with material things reflects a sacramental vision that issues in virtues like frugality.

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杂乱的发明和整理的新精神训练

摘要:本文认为，以近藤麻理惠为代表的全球流行的整理运动是一种新的精神学科，适合于一个特定的文化时刻，在这个时刻，富裕社会的成员，尤其是女性，陷入了在家里展示太多“东西”的羞耻和丢弃它们的内疚之间。在提出了神学家忽视这一运动的原因之后，这篇文章简要介绍了“杂乱的发明”的历史。通过这段历史，文章将整理作为一种“改造文化”的表达，它假设了一种永恒的审美自我。整理作为后期消费资本主义的一种精神实践，通过反映基督教皈依的程序，将其追随者转变为超然的性格。在欣赏这场运动对女性家庭生活和物质生活的关注的同时，本文对这场运动构建的审美自我进行了神学批判，审美自我通过逃避时间和生态网络进入私人的、永恒的空间而免除了罪恶感。相反，这篇文章赞扬了一个叙事性的、生态的自我，他与物质的接触反映了一种神圣的愿景，这种愿景体现了节俭等美德。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Practical Theology RELIGION-

CiteScore

0.80

自引率

14.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： The International Journal of Practical Theology is an academic journal. It is intended for practical theologians and teachers of religious education, scientists specializing in religion, and representatives of other cultural-scientific disciplines. The aim of the journal is to promote an international and interdisciplinary dialogue. The journal contains contributions on an empirically descriptive and critically constructive theory of ecclesiastical and religious practice in society. Primarily, it deals with descriptions of religion as it is practised. Religion in this context can be understood in the broad sense of the word according to which all appreciative tendencies towards an ultimate view of oneself and of the world can be described as being religious.