In her Article, Einstein evaluates how religion has become
commercialized. She argues that the consumer society of Western cultures has
created a society of consumers who are able to choose the best option for them
from a range of products and so expect this from all aspects of life. This has
impacted upon how religion is viewed. With modern technology and media, people
are more knowledgeable about different varieties of religion and so are free to
pick which spirituality they believe will suit them best. This fits with some
of the ideas of Adorno and Horkhiemer’s article “The Culture Industry”(1944),
but Einstein does not see this phenomenon as particularly negative.
Einstein goes on to explain how this commoditised aspect of
religion has led to an increased occurrence of what she calls “religious
branding”. I found her examples of the marketing campaigns of the Church of
Scientology and the Methodist Church very interesting as in Australia marketing
campaigns to promote religious observance are not so common, which I am quite
glad of. Although I can see the use of such campaigns and think religion
interacting with all forms of popular culture is quite beneficial to both
religious and secular people, I find that the idea of advertising religion in
this way a bit too suggestive of coercion.
I also found the idea that the Church of Scientology’s advert
was probably a better example of profitable marketing quite interesting.
Einstein argues that the Methodist Church was trying to advertise their
denomination, but they still promoted Christianity of any kind as good in their
advertisement. Whereas the goal was much clearer and more forcefully
pro-Scientology in the Church of Scientology’s campaign.
References:
Adorno T. and M. Horkheimer. 1944. The Culture Industry:
Enlightenment as Mass Deception. In Dialectic of Enlightenment. Andy
Blumden, transl. New York: Continuum
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