Consumerism as a feature of modern religion

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Consumerism as a feature of modern religion

Shavrina I., Ph.D., Associate Professor Associate Professor of the Department of Religious Studies Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

Abstract

The article analyzes different approaches to the interpretation of modern religiosity and considers one of the post-secular world's main features: the phenomenon of individual religiosity, which increasingly becomes an alternative to institutional religion. The author concludes that today every person has the opportunity to find their own meaning of religion and choose between different types of religious identity. Summarizing different interpretations of modern religiosity, the author identifies its inherent key features: “privatization of religion ”, “individualization of religion ”, and “religious bricolage”. The latter concept is closely linked to the concept of the “religious supermarket” and various theories that analyze modern society, primarily, as consumerist.

Keywords: modernity, individualization, religiosity, religious institution, postsecularity, pluralism, tolerance.

Анотація

У статті аналізуються різні підходи в трактуванні сучасної релігійності, розглядається одна з основних особливостей постсекулярного світу -- явище індивідуальної релігійності, яке все частіше стає альтернативою інституційної релігії. Автор приходить до наступного висновку: сьогодні у кожної людини є можливість побачити свій власний сенс в релігії і вибрати між різними типами релігійної ідентичності. Підводячи підсумок різним трактуванням сучасної релігійності, автор відзначає властиві їй ключові риси. Це -- «приватизація релігії», «індивідуалізація релігії», «релігійний бриколаж». Останній підхід тісно пов'язаний з концепцією «релігійного супермаркету» і різними теоріями, які аналізують суспільство сьогодення, в першу чергу, як конс'юмеристське.

Ключові слова: сучасність, індивідуалізація, релігійність, релігійний інститут, постсекулярність, плюралізм, толерантність.

Relevance of the research topic. Modem religious situation is featured by a series of transformations that determine the transition from secular to post-secular culture. One of the relevant issues in the context of these transformations is the determination of the position and role of the person in the modern social and cultural space, where the market penetrates all area of human life, creating new grounds for their identity.

The last several decades saw a significant number of discussions regarding modern religiosity's features, which are primarily related to the secularization theory. New approaches to the place of religion in current societies have emerged. Accordingly, there remains a need to analyze the theories and concepts that compete for explaining current processes in the interaction between societies and religions. Such analysis is the purpose of this article.

The modem era is often referred to as post-secular meaning the abandonment of assigning the ultimate importance to secularization as the most important feature of modernization. Thus, P. Berger proposes a theory of de-secularization [5]. Analysing modern concepts of secularization, J. Casanova notes that there are no simply secular people - they are “post-Catholics”, “post-Lutherans”, etc. [8].

Prefix “post” gained wide use due to the publications of J. Habermas, who views the present as a “post- seculafi' era (post-secular society). However, with this term, he refers not so much to the rejection of the concept of secularization of the West, but rather to the changed social, cultural, and political circumstances, with the religion becoming an important part of modern life. Due to the changing processes of globalization and multiculturalism, the secular world is to find a place for religion and religious institutions again as well as establish peaceful coexistence of different religious communities [10, pp. 20-21].

This approach is not agreed upon by everyone. C. Taylor considers modernity as an era of ongoing secularization [3]. The Canadian philosopher identifies three stages in the secularism development. The first stage features the emergence of “exclusive humanism” [15, p. 19], which claims the universality of ideas about human, contrasting itself with Christianity, considering the latter to be a one-sided view on human nature. According to C. Taylor, a prerequisite for the emergence of “exclusive humanism” is the emergence of a new type of person who establishes boundaries between themselves and the surrounding world and feels invulnerable. Thus, according to C. Taylor, modernity is an era in which a new type of personal identity emerges. The second stage, which, according to C. Taylor, is still ongoing, features a critique of “exclusive humanism” and the emergence of new forms of faith and unbelief. There is a growing distinction between “faith”, defined as individual experiencing of the transcendent, and “religion” as an institution. The third stage, that is emerging, is the stage of “authenticity” or “expressive individualism”, which consists in people searching for their own (including religious) way to self-realization [15, p. 299]. This search for the own path often leads to results that are completely different from traditional religious systems.

Describing the process of secularization, K. Dobbelaere considers secularization in three main dimensions: first, as the separation of church and state; second, in the context of organizational changes within religious institutions; and finally, as the secularization of consciousness [9]. This approach is supported by M. ter Borg [7]. He argues that depending on the era and situation, religiosity is significantly modified.

Although the researchers define the essence of post-secular religiosity in different ways, they converge on one aspect: its main feature is the individualization (or subjectivization) of faith, which increasingly becomes an alternative to traditional religiosity and religious institutions. The social differentiation of society has led to a crisis of institutional religiosity. It was substituted by personal religious beliefs as an integral part of the person's inner world.

The discussions on secularization are closely related to the theories of “privatization of religion”, described in the 1960s by P. Berger [6] and T. Luckmann [12], and “individualization of religion”, put forward by D. Hervieu-Leger and arguing that “religious modernity is individualism” [11, p. 161]. According to both these approaches, religion does not simply become a personal, private issue of each person. It rather relates to reducing universality of traditional religious systems and increasing diversity of manifestations of religious on the personal level.

Describing his position, T. Luckmann explains: “Privatization of religion is the core of the comprehensive privatization of life in modern societies” [2, p. 151].

D. Hervieu-Leger has an alike approach. According to the researcher, modern religious individualism is a religious faith that “is entirely centred upon individuals and their personal accomplishments, and characterized by the primacy of personal experience, which guides everyone according to their own way ... - everyone finding their own truth for themselves” [11, p. 164]. Religiosity is often interpreted primarily as a personal spiritual search and a path to self-improvement.

The individualization of religion is called Sheila- ism. The term was introduced by R. Bellah, the U.S. sociologist, and gained significant popularity among the Western scholars. Sheilaism is a self-proclaimed faith of a respondent named Sheila Larson (disguised). This faith presupposes the existence of God, but it is not related to attending church and can be defined as person's own “little voice” that determines their moral choices. According to R. Bellah, such a position is indicative of the transformations currently occurring with religiosity. The latter is characterized not only by individualism, but also by the refusal to appeal to the transcendent as the only source of religion and by the search for the foundations of religious in the resources of one's own personality [4, p. 221].

No matter how scholars define the essence of modern religiosity (“secularism” or “post-secularism”), one can observed the processes denoted by the English term “religious supermarket”, or the French term “religious bricolage”. The description of the cultural processes using economic market terminology is based on the concept of G. Mathews. Characterizing American religiosity, G. Mathews argues that in the modern society, identity, including religious, is determined by the market, which can be both material and cultural [14, p. 25].

The postmodernist scholar D. Lyon went even further in the use of market, or rather marketing, terminology in the study of modern religiosity. In his book “Jesus in Disneyland”, D. Lyon claims the “Disneyiza- tion” of religion. The author uses the concept of Disneyland as the quintessence, or a kind of an integral symbol of consumer society, because it “encapsulates in concentrated form some leading trends, especially the preoccupation with consuming - fashion, film, and music - and the experience of spectacles made possible by high technology” [13, p. 6].

However, D. Lyon opposes an unequivocal interpretation of “Disneyization” as a negative phenomenon. He emphasizes the need to approach the definition of religion in a fundamentally different way, abandoning the traditional sociological interpretation of modern religiosity, and to consider religion primarily as a cultural resource, considering the changes taking place in the postmodern society [1, p. 43].

Based on this, according to D. Lyon, consumption in modern religions should not be seen solely as a shocking phenomenon indicating a decline of religiosity and dominance of consumerism, but rather as a sign of a cultural change.

Aforementioned M. ter Borg, also embracing the concept of a religious supermarket, stated: “Religion is no longer like a book that is read from cover to cover. In a sense, people surf through religious content. Few people still look for a static religious system. Instead, they go shopping on the religion market” [7, p. 136]. According to M. ter Borg, in order to be attractive to a modern person, religion “has to be pleasant”; religions are in the environment, where they are forced to compete with each other for “customers”, who, like supermarket customers, may lose loyalty [7, p. 138].

Summing up the different interpretations of modern religiosity, we note its inherent key features: “privatization of religion”, “individualization of religion”, and “religious bricolage”, i.e. the tendency to fill the personal religious space with various attractive concepts, ideas, and rituals. The latter approach is closely linked to the concept of the “religious supermarket” and various theories that analyse our society primarily as a consumerist one.

The return of religion to the public sphere is too obvious to be ignored. In modern societies, religion has both democratized and commercialized. It is fully compatible with secular consumerism, as evidenced by the religious markets that offer spiritual services in the broadest sense, rather than just ecclesiastical services narrowly.

postsecularity religiosity bricolage

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