Neoliberal Mythmaking: On “Well-Being” as the New Protestant Work Ethic

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Abstract To what extent has modernization transformed those institutions and discourses commonly called ‘religions,’ and vice versa? How can we talk about those transformations without employing a naïve theory of secularization or privatization? And what is the connection between capitalism, modern ‘spirituality,’ and discourses on ‘well-being’? Situated within the tradition of Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, this paper will propose how we might begin to answer such questions, and will consider a contemporary Sufi text as an example of one site where these questions converge.