“Idolatry is not restricted to worshipping statues of wood or stone. Modern man worships money, fame, power, technical progress, and, most of all, his own alienated work-product.”
—
Erich Fromm
Psychoanalysis and Religion (1950), Yale University Press
Commentary
Fromm argues that secular society has not eliminated idolatry but merely relocated it. The sacred object changes (God → Money, Fame, Power), but the mechanism remains: projection of human values onto an external entity, then worship of it.
This is central to Fromm's critique of capitalism and consumerism. Modern idolatry objectifies human capacities: love becomes commodified; work becomes alienated (separated from authentic purpose); achievement becomes fetishized. Breaking idolatry requires recovering authentic valuation: valuing persons for their humanity, not their market value.
Commentary
Fromm argues that secular society has not eliminated idolatry but merely relocated it. The sacred object changes (God → Money, Fame, Power), but the mechanism remains: projection of human values onto an external entity, then worship of it.
This is central to Fromm's critique of capitalism and consumerism. Modern idolatry objectifies human capacities: love becomes commodified; work becomes alienated (separated from authentic purpose); achievement becomes fetishized. Breaking idolatry requires recovering authentic valuation: valuing persons for their humanity, not their market value.