ABSTRACT
In the past quarter century of consumer research, a recurrent theme has been the persistent interrelation of religious culture and contemporary American consumer culture. Religious practices, rituals, and meanings— and those looser beliefs termed “spiritual,” “magical,” and “sacred”— have been located in fan communities (Kozinets, 2001; O’Guinn, 1991), in historical re-enactments (Belk and Costa, 1998), among touristic gatherings (Arnould, Price, and Otnes, 1999; Hetherington, 2000), in technology groups (Belk and Tumbat, 2002; Muñiz and Schau, 2005), in online and offline groups devoted to food (Kozinets, 2002a; Thompson and Troester, 2002), in consumer activism (Kozinets and Handelman, 2004), at raves and doofs (St. John, 2001), at shopping malls and themed retail locations (Kozinets et al., 2004; Ritzer, 1999), as well as in collec- tions, at swap meets, and in American society generally (Belk, Wallen- dorf, and Sherry, 1989; Sherry, 1990).
