Course description
Two kinds of theories have in recent decades tried to make sense of the relationship between the economic sphere and the religious sphere. On the one hand the "rational choice-" or economic approach to religion applied economic reasoning to religious phenomena, arguing that believers were "customers" and religious groups "suppliers" that met in "religious markets" (Iannaccone 1995, 1998, Stark/Finke 2000). This approach proposed some interesting new explanations for long standing puzzles in the sociology of religion. On the other hand, various researchers began looking at how religions and spirituality are influenced by "consumer society" and thus start marketizing and branding themselves (Einstein 2008, 2011, Gauthier/Martikainen 2013). These scholars analyzed how Yoga was transformed from a highly spiritual phenomenon into a highly successful everyday commodity, how famous religious personalities like the Pope or the Dalai Lama or religious sites such as the Siena Cathedral are branded, or how Megachurches go to great length to create just the right spiritual product for a certain type of age group. Both approaches were also criticized on various, both theoretical and empirical grounds (Bruce 1993, 1999, Stolz 2006, Stolz/Usunier 2019).
This course will give students an overview over the rational choice of religion and the marketing of religion approach, showing them with what methods the propositions of these theories are tested and make them familiar with the most important results of the current research.
If they have not yet done so, students will acquire the skill of interpreting statistical tables and graphs in order to make sense of the most important results the respective research.
A special emphasis will be on the marketing of religious sites such as churches or monasteries. Examples from Italy will have a prominent place.

Main topics:

1. Theory: Rational choice approaches to religion

• Assumptions of the rational choice approach to religion
• Religion as a good
• Religious markets
• Examples of rational choice explanations in the religious sphere
• The theory of religious-secular competition
• The critique of rational choice approaches to religion

2. Theory: The marketization of religion and spirituality

• Consumer society as a societal context
• Marketing of religion and spirituality
• Religious branding
• Examples of religious and spiritual marketing and branding

3. Methods

• Qualitative methods
• Quantitative methods

4. Results from studies

• Is the US more religious because its religious market is less regulated?
• Do individuals choose their religions like a consumer good?
• The case of the marketization of Yoga
• Marketing megachurches
• Churches and monasteries as branded cultural goods.
• Explaining the attractiveness of religious careers world wide

Learning outcomes of the course
Learning outcomes are:

• an overview over rational choice theories of religion and theories of marketization of religion and spirituality,
• a clear sense of the methods with which such theories are tested and the skill of interpreting statistical tables and graphs
• familiarity with the most important results of the current research.

Teaching and evaluation methods
Every week the course consists of 1h lecture and 2h seminar/discussion. Students will be asked to read a paper / book extract a week, and to summarize and discuss the arguments. Students are expected to write a short 5-page research paper and there will be a final exam.

Evaluation:

• Participating in class: 20%
• Research paper: 40%
• Exam: 40%

Extra-curricular activities: We will make two site visits, one to a Catholic church, one to a Pentecostal church, to study their different marketing methods.

Bibliography 
Bruce, Steve. 1993. "Religion and Rational Choice: A Critique of Economic Explanations of Religious Behavior." Sociology of Religion 45(2):193-205.

Bruce, Steve. 1999. Choice and Religion. A Critique of Rational Choice Theory. Oxford: University Press.

Cragun, Ryan T., John Stinespring and Andrew Tillman. 2019. "Sunday Football or Church? A Case Study in Substitutes and Complements." Review of Religious Research. doi: 10.1007/s13644-019-00367-0.

Deshpande, Rohit, Kerry Herman and Annelena Lobb. 2011. "Branding Yoga." Working Paper Harvard Business School Marketing Unit Case No. 512-025.

Einstein, Mara. 2008. Brands of Faith. Marketing Religion in a Commercial Age. London: Routledge.

Einstein, Mara. 2011. "The Evolution of Religious Branding." Social Compass 58:331-38.

Gauthier, François and Tuomas Martikainen. 2013. Religion in Consumer Society. Brands, Consumers and Markets. Farnham: Ashgate.

Iannaccone, Laurence R. 1995. "Voodoo Economics? Reviewing The Rational Choice Approach to Religion." Journal for the scientific study of religion 34(1):76-89.

Iannaccone, Laurence R. 1998. "Introduction to the Economics of Religion." Journal of Economic Literature 36(3):1465-95.

Izberk-Bilgin, Elif. 2015. "Infidel Brands: Unveiling Alternative Meanings of Global Brands at the Nexus of Globalization, Consumer Culture, and Islamism." Journal of Consumer Research 39. doi: 10.1086/665413.

Jones, Charles B. 2007. "Marketing Buddhism in the United States of America: Elite Buddhism and the Formation of Religious Pluralism." Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 27(1):214-21.

Shachar, Ron, Tülin Erdem, Keisha M. Cutright and Gavan J. Fitzsimons. 2011. "Brands: The Opiate of the Nonreligious Masses." Marketing Science 30(1):92-110.

Stark, Rodney and Roger Finke. 2000. Acts of Faith. Explaining the Human Side of Religion. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Stolz, Jörg. 2006. "Salvation Goods and Religious Markets: Integrating Rational Choice and Weberian Perspectives." Social Compass 53(1):13-32.

Stolz, Jörg and Jean-Claude Usunier. 2019. "Religions as Brands? Transformations of Religion and Spirituality in Consumer Society." Journal of Management, Spirituality, and Religion 16(1):6-31. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14766086.2018.1445008.

Stolz, Jörg and Pascal Tanner. 2017. "Elements of a Theory of Religious-Secular Competition." Política & Sociedade 36(May-August). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-7984.2017v16n36p295.

Last updated: March 30, 2026