Consuming Religion

by Vincent Jude Miller

"The most profound problem with consumerism, argues Vincent Miller, is not the consumption of consumer goods, but the ways in which it trains us to treat everything, including religion, as an object of consumption. Consuming Religion surveys almost a century of scholarly literature on consumerism, from the rise of a culture of commodities to the flowering of the commodification of culture, and charts the ways in which religious belief and practice have been transformed by the dominant consumer culture of the West. Befitting a work of theology that takes culture seriously, the range of reference is enormous, from hip-hop and The Lion King to Gallic social theorists such as Henri Lefebvre, Guy Dubord, Pierre Bourdieu, and Michel de Certeau, not to mention a variety of modern contemporary theological movements. Along the way are riffs on the cult of religious celebrity, whether Buddhist or Catholic, male or female."--BOOK JACKET.