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After heroism - religion versus consumerism : preliminaries for an investigation of Protestantism and Islam under consumer culture / Matthias Zick Varul

Varul, Matthias Z. [Verfasserin/Verfasser]

Islam and Christian-Muslim relations. - Abingdon : Routledge ; Birmingham : CSIC, 1990-. - Bd. 19 (2008), 2, S. 237-255

Englisch

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1080/09596410801924046

SSG-Nummer(n): 0

Ökonomie ; Moderne Gesellschaft ; Ethische Argumentation ; Protestantismus ; Islam ; economy ; modern society ; ethical argumentation ; Protestanism

Using Protestantism and Islam as examples, the intricate relation between consumerism and religion is examined. Beyond the opposition of religious ‘heroic’ anti-consumerism and secular ‘romantic’ consumerism, it will be argued, there is mutual accommodation and even convergence. On the one hand consumerism challenges religion by taking over some genuinely religious functions; on the other hand it exacerbates and accelerates a religious dynamics of probation and, thereby, invites religion to a specifically consumerist revival. The condition for such a revival, however, is that friend/enemy distinctions based on religion are transformed into a variant of the decidedly unheroic ‘war of shopping’. Religious commitment is assimilated to consumer preferences, and becomes reversible.