Wednesday, 20 March 2013

Spirituality and Capitalism




By Katie Cosgrove

This week I read Spirituality and the Re-branding of Religion by Jeremy Carrette and Richard King. This article discusses the problems associated with contemporary use of spirituality for supporting corporatization or the rebranding of religion as spirituality. It at first seems surprising that spirituality could even be associated with economic and political gain, yet Carrett and King argue that it traces back to the enlightenment (2012:60). 
Carrett and King point out that through out history there has of course always been the presence of religion in economics. The rebranding of religion as spirituality in corporatization is different it is a new development, one that has a monopoly of the term spirituality (2012:62). 
The article discusses how there is an increased interest in spirituality in contemporary society in the form of new age and self -development. These forms of spirituality are now incorporated into everyday society through education, health and business (2012:59).  It seems that spirituality for many people has replaced traditional religion.

Spirituality has become so influential as it is seen as an avenue to healing and transformation that traditional religion could not offer (2012:59). Yet Carrette and King argue that spirituality has been taken over by a capitalist society that we live in today. That it is important to challenge the use of spirituality for gaining economic, political and corporate gain (2012:60). 
Carrette and King argue that this spirituality employed in corporatization is packaged as transformative and trendy yet it does little for helping a person actually transform there life (2012:62). Religion is being rebranded as spirituality in clothing and perfume and in the purchasing of relgious buildings and ideas to promote certain values all to support capitalism (2012:65).
Even though Carrett and King argue that there is an exploitation of spirituality for the purpose of corporate gain the important point to challenge is the way in which spirituality is being used to
“smooth out resistance to the growing power of corporate capitalism and consumersim as the defining ideology of our time” (2012:65) .
That this issue is important to address as our world is being dominated, eroded and driven by capitalism.
References:
Carrette J. and R. King. 2012. Spirituality and the Re-branding of Religion. In Lynch G. and J. Mitchell with A. Strhan. Eds., Religion, Media and Culture: A Reader. 59-70. London and New York: Routledge.
Image Source:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zen_cafe_1.JPG
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Silhouette_yoga.png

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