Religion in the Neoliberal Age: Political Economy and Modes of Governance , written by Martikainen, Tuomas, & Francois Gauthier, 2013

Warren S. Goldstein
2017 Comparative Sociology  
Religion in a Neoliberal Age grew out of a panel at the 2011 conference of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion in Aix-En-Provenence, France (xi). The introduction titled "Religion in Market Society" is by François Gauthier, Tuomas Martikainen and Linda Woodhead. The book is composed of two parts. The title of Part I is "Religions in the New Political Economy." The first chapter by Joanildo Burity, "Entrepreneurial Spirituality and Ecumenical Alterglobalism: Two Religious
more » ... nses to Global Neoliberalism" looks at the relationship between neoliberalism and the rise of Pentecostalism in Latin America. Burity distinguishes between traditional Pentecostalism and neo-Pentecostalism, both of which have arisen among the poor (pp. 28-29). Even though associated with the prosperity gospel, not all neo-Pentecostalism has been politically conservative (p. 31). Burity observes that "the relationship between religion and neoliberalism is" not unidirectional. As neoliberalism spread "globally, it produced impacts on, but also responses from, religious identities and organizations" (p. 21). In Chapter Two, "Making Religion Irrelevant: The 'Resurgent Religion' Narrative and the Critique of Neoliberalism," contrary to the secularisation thesis, James Spickard points out that "rather than modernity leading to irreligion," it produces "a conservative religious reaction" (p. 41). Borrowing the term from a former World Bank economist, Spickard describes neoliberalism as a kind of "market fundamentalism". It is "the belief -against evidence -that all economic problems are the result of government regulation and" (p. 47) that free trade will create growth. Jens Schlamelcher in Chapter Three, "The Decline of the Parishes and the Rise of City Churches: The German Evangelical Church in the Age of Neoliberalism" observes that neoliberal discourse has penetrated the Evangelical Church in
doi:10.1163/15691330-12341425 fatcat:i2lufnerv5es5hcewlwod344fu