A Critical Overview of Religious Market Theory
Journal Title: Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi - Year 2017, Vol 58, Issue 2
Abstract
The secularization thesis expects the decline of religion as a result of the modernization process. However, with modernization the effect of religion is not diminished in many societies and in some modern societies such as the United States, there are high religiousness rates. For these reasons, in recent years the classical secularization thesis has been questioned in the academic world. Therefore, alternative approaches to the secularization thesis have begun to develop. Religious Market Theory has emerged as a new approach attempting to apply the basic principles of classical economics to the social scientific study of religion. In this article, my aim is to examine the basic premises of Religious Market Theory and its application to the United States and European countries. After that I critique it and show that it is also as misleading as the secularization thesis to understand the phenomenon of religion in societies. While the secularization thesis is based on Europe’s experience to understand the place of religion in modern societies and universalizes it, Religious Market Theory theorizes and universalizes the American experience of religion
Authors and Affiliations
Fatih VAROL
Keywords
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