"D. L. Mayfield is a fierce truth-teller, and The Myth of the American Dream is proof of that. This book confronts us with the demons of white supremacy, our own demons, and asks what we're going to do about them. This book reminds us that our lives are more than our own and that we are required to ask how to be better partners to one another in community. This is a book the white American church needs right now."--Kaitlin B. Curtice, author of Glory Happening and Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God
"This trenchant Christian critique of American exceptionalism provides an essential, passionate interpretation of the ideals of egalitarianism."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Three pages into The Myth of the American Dream I was reminded that D. L. Mayfield is an unapologetic truth teller devoted to loving her neighbors. She has a prophetic voice, and like all prophets, she speaks the truth while reminding us God loves us. That is why we are invited not to a life of charity but of solidarity and advocacy with those on the margins. In her book, we learn ethics matter, integrity matters, and we cannot say we love our neighbors while supporting an empire that exploits and discards them. With humility and honesty, she guides our imaginations toward a powerful vision of a life lived according to the economy of God, one of justice and flourishing for all."--Karen González, World Relief, author of The God Who Sees
"In this latest work, Mayfield explores four basic values of the American dream through a series of short essays: affluence, autonomy, safety, and power. . . . The author succeeds in beginning the conversation of widening American Christianity to include those traditionally excluded."--Library Journal, Ray Arnett, May 2020
"The American dream, a common developed theology, tucked deep inside the myth of America's founding, saturates every system in America from politics to education to the church. This so-called dream is perhaps the most widespread and deepest held religion in our country. D. L. Mayfield examines the myth and exposes it in wonderful juxtaposition to the real Jesus of the Gospels, who is good news to the poor and disenfranchised. I wish every American, regardless of how much they believe themselves to have separated themselves from the national religion of Americanism, would read The Myth of the American Dream. This may be the most important book you read for some time, and it is especially urgent that you read it now!"--Randy Woodley, author and speaker, distinguished professor of faith and culture at Portland Seminary
"In my work with immigrants to the US, I find most came in search of some combination of safety from persecution, opportunity to escape poverty, and freedom from oppression--all motivations consistent with the human flourishing that characterizes God's kingdom. In the US, however, these good desires that define many immigrants' 'American dream' have too often metastasized as we have turned safety, affluence, power, and autonomy into idols to be sought at all costs, even when--sometimes subconsciously--these pursuits have excluded others. D. L. Mayfield's beautifully written and provocative The Myth of the American Dream makes a compelling case that God's dream for the world is much grander than our culturally ingrained idols."--Matthew Soerens, coauthor of Welcoming the Stranger, US director of church mobilization for World Relief