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Selling God/saving souls

Religious commodities, spiritual markets and the media

University of Queensland, Australia, pradip.thomas{at}uq.edu.au

The relationship between the religious commodity market, popular culture and political economy remains under-theorized. The globalization of religion has led to a massive global trade in on-line and off-line religious commodities. This article explores the mobile Christian commodity form and its specific politics of use. Using examples from India and the US, it explores the ways in which Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal groups use multi-media products and platforms for evangelization. The profit potential in religious fare has not gone unnoticed in corporate circles, and synergistic relationships have developed between media corporations and Christian production houses involved in creating commodities for segmented audiences. The article argues that in the context of the global expansion and export of Christian fundamentalism, the increasingly close relationship between mediated Christianity and the commodity form facilitates the extension of specific, conservative, forms of values-based capitalism.

Key Words: Christian fundamentalism • commodities • market • media • Pentecostalism • religion

Global Media and Communication, Vol. 5, No. 1, 57-76 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1742766508101314


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