Commercialization of Religions Worldwide: A Look through Ninian Smart’s Seven Dimensions of Religion

The growth of global consumer culture and associated phenomena in other realms of life is a fact of the past half century. It is also a truism that significant new religious phenomena have emerged, including so-called megachurches that directly draw on contemporary capitalism and corporate culture. In the sociology of religion, three main competing perspectives have emerged to explain the situation: reformulations of secularization theory, rational choice theory or economics of religion, and the neoliberal perspective on religion. This presentation follows the last of these perspectives and makes its case by utilizing Ninian Smart’s heuristic model of the seven dimensions of religion. Hence, we shall look at how religions have been commercialized through the lenses of the (1) practical and ritual, (2) experiential and emotional, (3) narrative or mythic, (4) doctrinal and philosophical, (5) ethical and legal, (6) social and institutional, and (7) material dimensions. Smart’s framework allows us to discuss the different developments, consequences and repercussions for religion when adapted/adapting to a new neoliberal rationale.