Religion and the marketplace in the United States / edited by Jan Stievermann, Philip Goff, and Detlef Junker ; associate editors, Anthony Santoro and Daniel Silliman.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Stievermann, Jan, editor.

Goff, Philip, 1964- editor.

Junker, Detlef, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Religion.

United States.

Religion.

Business--Religious aspects.

Business.

Physical Description:

xii, 295 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2015.

Summary:

Alexis de Tocqueville once described the national character of Americans as one question insistently asked: "How much money will it bring in?" G. K. Chesterton, a century later, described America as a "nation with a soul of a church." At first glance, the two observations might appear to be diametrically opposed, but this volume shows the ways in which American religion and American business overlap and interact with one another, defining the US in terms of religion, and religion in terms of economics. Bringing together original contributions by leading experts and rising scholars from both America and Europe, the volume pushes this field of study forward by examining the ways religions and markets in relationship can provide powerful insights and open unseen aspects into both. In essays ranging from colonial American mercantilism to modern megachurches, from literary markets to popular festivals, the authors explore how religious behavior is shaped by commerce, and how commercial practices are informed by religion. By focusing on what historians often use off-handedly as a metaphor or analogy, the volume offers new insights into three varieties of relationships: religion and the marketplace, religion in the marketplace, and religion as the marketplace. Using these categories, the contributors test the assumptions scholars have come to and explore hitherto unchartered territory. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I. Reassessment

ch. 1. Why are Americans so religious? The limitations of market explanations / E. Brooks Holifield

Part II. Evangelicals and markets

ch. 2. Weber and the eithteenth-century religious developments in America / Mark Valeri

ch. 3. Bill Graham, Christian manliness, and the shaping of the Evangelical subculture / Grant Wacker

ch. 4. Money matters and family matters : James Dobson and Focus on the Family on the traditional family and capitalist America / Hilde Lovdal Stephens

Part III. Religious book markets

ch. 5. The commodification of William James : the book business and the rise of liberal spirituality in the twentith-century United States / Matthew S. Hedstrom

ch. 6. Literature and the economy of hte sacred / Gunter Leypoldt

ch. 7. Publishers and profit motives : the economic history of Left Behind / Daniel Silliman

Par tIV. Religious resistance and adaptation to the market

ch. 8. Selling infinite selves : youth culture and contemporary festivals / Sarah M. Pike

ch. 9. Religious branding and the quest to meet consumer needs : Joel Osteen's "Message of hope" / Kayja Rakow

ch. 10. Unsilent partners : sports stadiums and their appropriation and use of sacred space / Anthony Santoro

Part V. Critical reglection and prospects

ch. 11. Considering the neoliberal in American religion / Kathryn Lofton.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199361793

0199361797

9780199361809

0199361800

OCLC:

892040887

Publisher Number:

99961834950