Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life

Elizabeth Scalia's "Strange Gods" offers readers a surprising look at the ways in which modern people still commit the sin of idolatry in their everyday lives. While literal golden calves no longer dot the landscape, Scalia shows readers that idolatry is alive and kicking, causing havoc and unhappiness. Scalia describes how legitimate loves become obsessively twisted into idols: "spiritually deforming hate is very often conceived in love. We love our country; we love our community; we love our church; we love our traditions; we love our perception of ourselves; we love life; we love babies. Because we love these things, we are willing to engage in activities that support them. But sometimes . . . we become fully-enthralled activists, with our perspectives so narrowed that there leaves little room for give-and-take, or dialogue. Our blinders cut off our peripheral vision until mercy becomes invisible; there is only room for battle." Identifying idolatry in a number of everyday experiences—friendships that become needy or possessive, commitments political and religious that grow so intense they lead to hatred of others, to name a few—Scalia points to the incarnation of Christ and authentic worship of him as a way out of idolatry and into peace, happiness, and love.