Selling God/saving souls

Religious commodities, spiritual markets and the media

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7098004
AutoresPradip Thomas (0000-0001-8367-1106, The University of Queensland, autor de correspondencia)
Año2009
Volumen5
Número1
Páginas57-76
Fecha de publicación2009-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGlobal Media and Communication (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1742-7665 • E-ISSN: 1742-7673
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1742766508101314
OpenAlexW1976586754
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas12
Referencias citadas24

The relationship between the religious commodity market, popular culture and political economy remains under-theorized. The globalization of religion has led to a massive global trade in on-line and off-line religious commodities. This article explores the mobile Christian commodity form and its specific politics of use. Using examples from India and the US, it explores the ways in which Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal groups use multi-media products and platforms for evangelization. The profit potential in religious fare has not gone unnoticed in corporate circles, and synergistic relationships have developed between media corporations and Christian production houses involved in creating commodities for segmented audiences. The article argues that in the context of the global expansion and export of Christian fundamentalism, the increasingly close relationship between mediated Christianity and the commodity form facilitates the extension of specific, conservative, forms of values-based capitalism

Capitalism · Christianity · Commodity · Context (archaeology · Economics · Economy · Fundamentalism · Globalization · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · History · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious studies