Religious Consumption Research Articles

Revisiting Benjaminʼs aura in the age of mediatisation – the digital aura of megachurches

ABSTRACT This study employs Walter Benjamin’s aura framework as a theoretical lens to look at religious consumption in virtual worlds, via a case study of the London megachurch Kingsway International Christian Centre. Findings suggest inter-personal authenticity contributes to authenticity in online religious consumption and emphasise the need to re-sacralise space and de-sanctify time to help congregant-audiences access sacred experiences. We also highlight the importance of re-mooring traditions and transformable rituals in replicating essential components of real-world worship gatherings through media and technologies. Proposing that the digital imbues its own aura, we develop the concept of ‘digital aura’, characterised by hypermediacy in media usage and remediation, which leads to the refashioning of certain practices and, ultimately, changes the way that audience members engage in ritual events.

Consuming Islam: media, ritual, and identity in the making of a brotherhood

ABSTRACT Research on Islam and consumption focuses mostly on commercialisation of Islam. This article studies Islam-consumption interaction in the context of religious competition within Islam. It discusses the role of religious consumption in Pakistan where Islamic organisations belonging to different Sunni denominations seek to expand while maintaining ideological boundaries. Through an ethnographic study of Dawat-e-Islami, which belongs to the Barelvi denomination within Sunni Islam, it argues that religious consumption within the media and ritual settings of the organisation help to reify a subcultural, denominational identity. Capitalising on the cultural repertoires at its disposal, Dawat-e-Islami has commodified its call to Madina into artefacts, signs, symbols, and names and offered them for consumption to its followers through its media and ritual settings. Collective and expressive acts of consumption, enabled as such, serve to construct a unique, subcultural collective identity within Sunnism – the Madani Brotherhood. This brotherhood contributes to the expansion of DI’s Madani mission while guarding ideological boundaries. In the context of competing visions of Sunni Islam, collective and expressive acts of religious consumption reinforce symbolic and ideological boundaries.

Religiocentrism in consumption: a literature review

PurposeThis paper aims to conceptually extend the religious aspect of consumption beyond the intrinsic motivation, i.e. religiosity, to a broader consideration of its social and cultural surroundings by highlighting the concept of “religiocentrism”.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is conceptual and qualitative. It explores the concept of religiocentrism in several disciplines, including theology, politics, sociology, marketing and consumption.FindingsThe paper introduces the concept of religiocentrism in understanding religious consumption and marketing among consumers within a religious context. This paper further discusses the origin of the term religiocentrism; religiocentrism as looking beyond the intrinsic motivation, i.e. religiosity, religiocentrism from the social identity theory; past research on religiocentrism in theology, politics, sociology, education, marketing and consumption, as well as suggesting potential future research in religiocentrism within marketing and consumption studies.Research limitations/implicationsThe lack of research relating to religiocentrism in marketing makes the depth of the discussion rather limited. This paper, however, does not discuss the term religiocentrism from the theology roots but focuses more on the marketing and consumption aspects of religiocentrism.Originality/valueSeveral research papers exist within the different disciplines about religiocentrism. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it can be argued that this paper is one of its kind to highlight the concept of “religiocentrism” in consumption and marketing that considers the social and cultural surroundings.

Purification in religious sojourns: consuming in relatively sacred spaces

PurposeUsing the canvas of the author’s sojourn with the Islamic preaching group Tablighi Jamaat, this study aims to exhibit reflections on how spaces can be categorized as more sacred or less sacred according to a specific religious worldview. The paper extends the conversation on Mary Douglas’s concepts of purity and danger by sharpening the focal lens on place in Douglas’s theoretics. The paper also proffers the idea of a sojourn as a vehicle of purification.Design/methodology/approachThis paper depicts findings from the author’s multi-sited ethnographic field notes carried out from a 40-day sojourn with the Islamic preaching group Tablighi Jamaat in Pakistan.FindingsThe study unveils the concept of relative sacredness or how some spaces can be considered more sacred than others. The differential sacred status of these variegated spaces, each with its own etiquettes, meaning and consumption rituals is a means for purification for sojourners.Originality/valueThis paper prioritizes a focus on place in Mary Douglas’s arguments on purity and impurity in a religious consumption context. The thesis argues that place is a significant concept associated with metaphorical cleanliness/sacredness, which in religious terms guides consumer action.

Buddhism, an Urban Village and Cultural Soft Power: An Ethnography of Buddhist Practitioners in Wutong

The article presents an ethnography of Buddhist practice groups in Wutong village, an urban village in the Shenzhen metropolis area, relating to the village's predicament through the 1990s and until 2019. It discusses the relationship between two intertwined forms of soft power employed by the Chinese regime: 1) The push for cultural consumption within the framework of the re-development of urban villages. 2) The PRC’s re-definition of Buddhism as a culture instead of a religion. The author examines different lay Buddhist actors in the village, which operate within the current restrictive government policy towards religious groups. The ethnography of Wutong shows the non-dichotomic dynamic of suppression and support articulated by the state towards Buddhism's cultural and religious consumption. It focuses on the dynamic between state control and people's agency over their spiritual and religious realities, especially on the urban fringes. The article suggests that the urban art village can be understood as a sphere where lay Buddhists subvert state regulation by creating alternative Buddhist spaces for lay practice, in the form of cultural commodities. However, the article addresses the liminality of such urban spaces, which, aside from opportunities for religious entrepreneurship, also creates a state of precariousness for urban village inhabitants, including Buddhist practitioners.

The influence of religious belief and psychological factors on borrowing behaviour among Malaysian public sector employees

PurposeThis study investigates the borrowing behaviour of public sector employees in Malaysia by focusing on religious belief and psychological factors. The first objective of the study is to examine the differences in the borrowing behaviour according to demographic and socioeconomic factors of the civil servants. The second objective of the study is to investigate the influence of religious belief, excessive consumption, materialism and financial literacy towards two aspects of borrowing behaviour: personal loans and credit card usage.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data was collected using a digital survey which was distributed using a convenience sampling approach to public sector employees working in Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A sample of 340 public sector employees was obtained for analysis.FindingsThe study found that civil servants of different education backgrounds and income levels tend to differ in their borrowing behaviour. Specifically, those with lower levels of education, or lower income levels, tend to have a higher tendency of borrowing through personal loans. Multiple regression analyses reveal that public sector employees with either higher religious belief or higher financial literacy have a lower tendency of borrowing either through credit cards or personal loans. However, those who spend excessively or those who have higher levels of materialism tend to display more aggressive borrowing behaviour in terms of credit card usage and personal loans.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the literature by exploring the role of religious belief on borrowing behaviour. In addition, the study contributes to the literature by examining a specific group in the Malaysian society, i.e. public sector employees, due to the perturbing state of indebtedness among civil servants in Malaysia.

Perception of Muslim Consumers Towards Halal Branding in Advertising

The study is an eye opener into areas of Islamic Marketing that are becoming more substantial and have not been addressed. In advertisements, Halal is considered a brand that holds significant value for Muslim consumers. Furthermore, Halal branding especially in advertising has emerged as a new type of marketing advertisement. Such emergence has caused businesses to reconsider their advertising approach to attract new and retain old consumers. The study is aimed at providing an enhanced understanding on the role of advertising and branding towards Halal consumption. The role is further studied upon through extensive literature review and empirical data collection involving Muslim consumers. Analysis of data collected implied that existing insights on religious consumption is lopsided compared to the blooming Halal market particularly the perception of Muslim consumers towards Halal branding. Findings thus not only affect Muslim consumers, marketers, the government but also impact the society.

Modern Practice, Archaic Ritual: Catholic Exorcism in America

The following ethnographic and folkloric analysis of American exorcism practices post-1998 centers on four Catholic priest-exorcists currently active in the United States. After a brief commentary regarding the place of Satanism within contemporary Catholic imagination, this article posits that the Catholic Church’s recent institutional support of its office of exorcist must not be viewed separately from its discursive fear of Satanic cults and larger narratives of religious declension. The current era of exorcism practice in America is chiefly characterized as a response to the media sensationalism surrounding not only prior cases of demonic possession but also of Satanic ritual abuse. Moreover, beyond these explicit issues of religious competition (e.g., Catholics versus Satanic conspirators), the current era of exorcism practice is also implicitly characterized by the changing belief systems of contemporary Catholics. Thus, this article ultimately concerns issues related to religious modernization, the apotropaic use of established religious tradition, popular entertainment and the mediatization of contemporary exorcism cases, institutionalized training curricula and the spaces allowing ritual improvisation, and the vernacular religious consumption of unregulated paranormal concepts that possess no clear analogues within official Church theology.

Toward a divine economic system: Understanding exchanges in a religious consumption field

Marketing theory on exchanges is dominated by market/nonmarket exchanges and their hybrid versions. However, unlike these relatively more secular exchanges, little is known about religious exchanges or “gifts-to-gods” in marketing theory, in spite of evidence to indicate its overwhelming presence around the world. Using the context of a Pentecostal consumption field, this article examines three forms of religious exchanges—exchange with the church (institution), exchange among church members (communal pooling), and exchange with God (sacred) and how they influence the consumption of religion in this context. Instead of market/nonmarket economic systems, the article advances a divine economic system—a system of exchanges governed by divine agents (gods, spirits, saints), which centralizes and legitimizes these religious exchanges. This article extends marketing theory on exchanges, reciprocity, and the consumption and marketization of religion.

Creencias religiosas, salud, personalidad y consumo de alcohol

Creencias religiosas, salud, personalidad y consumo de alcohol

The invisible identity in a visible world: how religiosity mediates consumer culture and the marketplace

Purpose This paper aims to offer a systematic view of religious consumption and its iterative influences on consumers, as well as their differences in attitudes, values and behaviors. Design/methodology/approach Using a mixed-method approach – both qualitative and quantitative – the study develops religious self-transformation and self-categorization scales to empirically evaluate the hypotheses. Findings The convergence of consumption, self-identification and religious attitudes and behaviors proffer an essentially subjective concept useful in understanding the existential reflection and supernatural orientation that individuals may seek through consumption. Cluster analysis (based on product, services, media and practices) reveals four quadrants. The non-religious (religious) group has low (high) consumption in all four consumption categories Self-categorization (self-transformation) group has high (low) level of product consumption, but low (high) in all three other categories. This research presented four invisible identities that are visibly different in terms of life satisfaction, religious brand preference, dollars spending on religious products and monetary donation. Research limitations/implications This research only considers one medium-size city as opposed to all types of cities. All religious affiliated and nonaffiliated respondents are included in the total sample. Practical implications The study offers new insights into the triadic relationship between religious self-identification, religious consumption, and the marketplace that can be used in branding, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and persuasive advertising, public relation and social media, and services marketing. Social implications Religion addresses the nature of existence. In this religion–consumer–brand nexus, consumption is a way for consumers to experience and immense themselves in the sacred to solidify, communicate, transform, improve and transport who they are capitalizing on religious self-identification can affectively promote positive social change. Originality/value This work proposes four invisible identities that are different in consumption of religious products and services in terms of patterns and purposes. These groups of consumers shape the marketplace through the derived utility of their religious consumption based on their self-identification, which in turn influences their religious brand preference.

Consumer transits and religious identities: towards a syncretic consumer

ABSTRACTThe majority of research on religious consumption assumes stable, singular and exclusive preferences, an individual is an adherent to one religion at a time and conversion is a radical break in identity. In examining a context where individuals can simultaneously practice multiple religions despite seemingly theologically incompatible beliefs, we introduce the concept of religious transit, allowing for a more processual understanding of religious identity. To do so, we draw on theories of religious capital, foregrounding the flexibility of this resource in enabling multifarious religious consumption. This is made possible by the religious leaders themselves; in highlighting shared rituals and discourses, they downplay any cognitive incongruences to allow for easy, market-mediated accessibility. By conceptualising four types of religious consumption, we theorise the dynamics of consumer mobility.

ISLAM DAN POSFEMINISME : WAJAH POSFEMINISME DALAM KOMODIFIKASI AGAMA DI MEDIA

The relationship between masculine and feminine is collectively constructed. Both narrative and discourse of feminism has long emerged up to the third-wave. As Foucault has been pointed out that feminism itself has constructed discourse on inequality since it departs from patriarchy. Meanwhile, patriarchy has produced a threat even though it is under the pretext of feminism. The term postfeminism is thus arises after feminism, where there are no sources of oppression that originate from patriarchy.In fact, however, the interpretation of religious arguments (Islam in particular) does not subordinate women. But on the contrary, the religious argument actually wants to make women equal to men in the society. This article offers an analysis of the relation between Islam and postfeminism based on the perspective of religious commodification. It was noted that social media played a pivotal role in raising religion to engage on a global scale.Women from the perspective of postfeminism are seen as independent subjects. Freedom, gender equality, and pluralistic representation are the starting points for postfeminist women. Soft Power owned by social media contextualizes religion (Islam) and disseminates ideas including femininity in a new method, where the religious consumption can be enjoyed every second.Indonesian (Muslim) women campaign for gender equality and postfeminism awareness that is free in all things through social media (Instagram and YouTube). This is usually done in various ways such as lectures and fashion. Religious commodification, in this case is seen when religious understanding is capitalized. This perspective finally bringing Muslim women to say that "I am beautiful for myself". Although some argue that capitalizing religion appear to be less precise, when the commodification of religion can support women's freedom.

Emerging distribution networks of Roman pottery in the Ancient Mediterranean: the sigillata clay lamps of Proconsular Africa

This paper surveys the use of Network Science, especially the role of ArchaeologicalNetworks to the study of Archeology and Ancient History. Networkthinking and network science are valuable methodologies and analytical techniquesto apply to the study clay lamps in the framework of Roman economy.The recent application of network analysis in Antiquity and Archaeology hasdemonstrated that there are a variety of approaches to recognizing networkpatterns or thinking about phenomena as products of networked processes.Provincial connectivity is one of the most debated aspects of Roman economics,and ceramic consumption patterns in the interior and coastal regions ofAfrica Proconsularis have proven to be very different. The dominant tendencyto turn to the communities formed and structured around native identities,especially those based in the major urban centers and larger areas, seems toestablish itself as an argument for the economy and exchanges of the RomanEmpire. This types of networks helped to spread ideas and religious symbolsthrough clay lamps. Africa Proconsular demonstrates evidence that the ceramicworkshops emerged as networks in order to established themselves seekingto meet the Mediterranean demand and religious consumption.

아미쉬 공동체의 윤리 분석: 기독교 종교성, 소비문화, 예배갱신, 평화론 모색

아미쉬 공동체의 윤리 분석: 기독교 종교성, 소비문화, 예배갱신, 평화론 모색

Attitudes toward Christian church retailing: A study in Cape Town, South Africa

AbstractThe temporal and eternal often cross paths in economic and financial transactions, with the blending of religion and commerce producing divergent views. Nevertheless, churches increasingly use commercial methods such as marketing and retailing for, inter alia, fundraising, connecting with congregations and keeping abreast of social, technological and economic changes. As with most businesses, churches may investigate their target consumers in order to align their efforts to meet the needs of consumers. The peculiar nature of religious consumption has both short‐term, product‐based needs and long‐term spiritual influences. This study investigated the attitudes of church members toward church retailing and various types of church retail products. A series of 26 in‐depth interviews were conducted for this study, resulting in antithetical attitudes toward the broad concept of church retailing, and with more distinct positive and negative attitudes toward particular product types. Generally, attitudes were more positive toward products perceived to be more authentic with regard to the religious mission of the church, and more negative toward products perceived as straying from it. Furthermore, attitudes in relation to church retailing were influenced by who the ultimate beneficiaries would be.

Googling in Fear: Measuring Moral Panic Using Internet Searches Before and After Obama’s 2008 Election

ABSTRACTThe rhetoric, rumor, and hostility that surrounded the election of Barack Obama in 2008 appeared to correspond with the notion of a “moral panic.” However, systematically measuring phenomena like moral panics, which are volatile and dispersed in nature, can be difficult. This paper utilizes Google search data combined with other sources to examine the reaction to the candidacy and initial election of Obama. Given the nature of this particular panic, we hypothesize that panic-induced searches will be greater in states with a larger presence of Evangelical Protestants and consumption of conservative media outlets. Results from a series of generalized least squares time-series and two-stage regression models demonstrate that searches related to “socialism” and the “Antichrist” grew significantly around Obama’s election, indicating Obama’s “folk devil” status and a growing moral panic. Additionally, the intensity of the panic appears to be moderated by religious cultures and media consumption. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.

Bees in the medieval economy: religious observance and the production, trade, and consumption of wax in England, c. 1300–1555

AbstractThe high and late middle ages saw a significant increase in demand for beeswax, a fundamental component of medieval Christian devotion, spurred by both changing socio‐economic conditions and shifts in religious practice. The vast quantities of wax needed for churches and religious foundations in England drove a thriving international trade spanning from the hinterland of Novgorod to the port of Lisbon, while at the same time encouraging widespread domestic beekeeping. This article considers the impact of supply‐side constraints and increasing demand on wax prices, calculating the cost and quantity of wax purchased by large foundations, parish churches, and individual offerings, to reveal the hitherto underexplored impact of religious consumption on the medieval economy.

The dynamics of Zakat donation experience among Muslims: a phenomenological inquiry

PurposeThe charitable organizations must understand the forces influencing donor behaviours. This issue has been debated rigorously among researchers belonging to Western societies; however, the exploration of donation experience among non-Western academics is limited. This study aims to discover the phenomenon of Zakat donation experience – an Islamic religious act of charity donation performed among Muslims to enhance our understanding of religious consumption practices in a Muslim country setting of Pakistan.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used phenomenological methodology to collect data from 35 donors via face-to-face interviews.FindingsThe informants advocate individuality while making Zakat donations and believe that an independent donation experience brings them with higher levels of happiness, intrinsic drive to spend more and spiritual comfort. The Zakat donation is regarded as a great source of self-protection against the realm of evil spirits which is entirely a new finding with respect to charity donations. The informants identified several reasons for not donating through charities which mainly include lack of trust and limited product mix offered by charitable organizations.Practical implicationsBased on the findings of this research, the authors suggest charitable organizations to ensure procedural transparency and emphasize on Zakat collection, distribution and utilization methods to attract more donors.Originality/valueThe study contributes generally to charity marketing knowledge and specifically to consumer decision-making of religious acts performed in Muslim societies. The phenomenological method of inquiry and its application to study an Islamic act of donation has limited discussion in previous studies, which is a unique product of this study.

Why some South Asian Muslims celebrate Christmas: Introducing ‘acculturation trade-offs’

Research studying religious observance and marketplace interaction in different cultural settings focuses either on the dominant religious group's consumption rituals or religious minorities' own religious consumption rituals. However, research has not explored how religious minority groups celebrate dominant religious holidays. This study explores how Muslims living in Britain apply religiosity to mediate engaging with Christmas celebrations. We argue these interactions must be understood from a religious, cultural and market generated perspective. Our findings indicate that participants encounter tensions surrounding their engagement with Celebrations mediated through their Islamic religious principles. By recognizing this behavior, we introduce the term ‘acculturation trade-offs’ describing how individuals reject, compromise, or submerse themselves in an others' behavior. This behavior involves a personal evaluation of the costs and benefits of engagement.