You Don’t Need a Calling: An Anti-Capitalist Manifesto for a Life of Purpose

Capitalism falsely frames life in terms of profit that benefit the powerful and damage the human spirit, according to this energetic if imperfect treatise. Pastor Garcia (The God Who Riots) argues that capitalism “manipulates us into thinking that our true selves are found on the other side of success,” trapping people in an endless race toward professional achievement. But worth is a result of God’s “unearned favor,” according to Garcia, and readers would be better served by separating their identity from their work, remaining “genuinely open to what the present moment has in store,” and focusing on connecting with their communities. Garcia explains how to achieve this in small ways, like spending quality time with friends and family, while working toward reshaping the capitalist system by strengthening workers’ cooperatives and other community organizations, speaking out about unfair labor conditions, and pushing for higher taxes on the rich. While Garcia sometimes resorts to rhetorical gymnastics to make his points (“Positive statements are inherently reductive.... If that person is good, then they’re not bad, and if that thing is bad, then it’s not good,” he writes in a vague entreaty for readers to shed rigid self-perceptions), he effectively makes a case for redefining one’s value as innate and rooted in one’s relationship to others and to God. This resonates. (June)