Religions as Brands. The Marketization of Religions as Cultural Goods
Professors
Schedule
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.
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.
Syllabus
|
First session (1.5h) Lecture & discussion text |
Second session (1.5h) Workshop |
Reading (for first session) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction | Research questions | |
| Theory | |||
| 2 | Rational choice of religion | Cases and Variables | Iannaccone 1995; Bruce 1993 |
| 3 | Consumer culture and religion | Definitions | Gauthier et al 2011 |
| 4 | Social games and religion I | Typologies | Stolz/Senn 2023 |
| 5 | Social games and religion II | Theories | Stolz 2023 |
| 6 | Social games and religion III | Academic writing | Nardella 2012 |
| Case studies | |||
| 7 | Religious-secular competition | Research design | Stolz 2026 |
| 8 | The branding of Magic/Wicca | Ethnographic observation I | Miller 2022 |
| 9 | Church advertising in Ghana | Ethnographic observation II | Appau/Yang 2024 |
| 10 | The branding of Yoga | Qualitative interviewing | Jain 2015 (ch. 4) |
| 11 | The branding of Hillsong | Presenting & Q&Aing | Riches/Wagner 2012 |
| 12 | The branding of religion in Venice (Student presentations) | The branding of religion in Venice (idem) |
Teaching and evaluation methods
Every week the course consists of 1.5h lecture and 1.5h 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
Appau, Samuelson, and Ye (Nicole) Yang. 2024. "Church advertising and the marketization of religious hegemony." Marketing Theory 24 (2):263-288.
Bruce, Steve. 1993. "Religion and Rational Choice: A Critique of Economic Explanations of Religious Behavior." Sociology of Religion 45(2):193-205.
Deshpande, Rohit, Kerry Herman and Annelena Lobb. 2011. "Branding Yoga." Working Paper Harvard Business School Marketing Unit Case No. 512-025.
Gauthier, François, Tuomas Martikainen, and Linda Woodhead. 2011. "Introduction: Religion in Consumer Society." Social Compass 58 (3):291-301.
Iannaccone, Laurence R. 1995. "Voodoo Economics? Reviewing Th Rational Choice Approach to Religion." Journal for the scientific study of religion 34(1):76-89.
Jain, Andrea R. 2015. Selling Yoga. From Counterculture to Pop Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Miller, Chris. 2022. "How Modern Witches Enchant TikTok: Intersections of Digital, Consumer, and Material Culture(s) on #WitchTok." Religions 13 (118):1-22.
Munir, Kamal, Shahzad Ansari, and Deborah Brown. 2021. "From Patan˜jali to the ''Gospel of Sweat'': Yoga's Remarkable Transformation from a Sacred Movement into a Thriving Global Market." Administrative Science Quarterly 66 (3):854-899.
Nardella, Carlo. 2012. "Religious Symbols in Italian Advertising: Symbolic Appropriation and the Management of Consent." Journal of Contemporary Religion 27 (2):217-240.
Riches, Tanya, and Tom Wagner. 2012. "The evolution of Hillsong. From Australian pentecostal congregation into global brand." Australian Journal of Communication 39 (1).
Stolz, Jörg, and Jeremy Senn. 2023. "Religious markets, religious marketing, and individual religious choice in Europe." In Routledge Handbook on Politics and Religion in Europe (in print), edited by Effie Fokas and Alberta Georgie. London: Routledge.
Stolz, Jörg. 2023. "The theory of social games: outline of a general theory for the social sciences." Humanities & Social Sciences Communications 10 (1):1-12. doi: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01862-0.
Course duration: 40 hours of tuition
Credits equivalence: 6 ECTS
Last updated: April 23, 2026
