ABSTRACT
The relationship between the market society and religion is as multi-layered as religion itself. Personal faith as well as religious practice can be affected, individuals as well as institutions. Public space may be implicated, and so may private identities. The resulting cultural and discursive hybridity has attracted the attention of sociologists, media studies scholars, historians, political scientists and, of course, theologians. Book titles-fashioned, obviously, for an academic book market-speak pithily of blending, synthesis and clashes: for example, Pray TV (Bruce 1990), Selling God (Moore 1994), Jesus in Disneyland (Lyon 2000), The McDonaldization of the Church (Drane 2001), Consuming Religion (Miller 2005) and Brands of Faith (Einstein 2008). At the more popular, consulting end of the spectrum, we fi nd titles such as Church Marketing 101 (Reising 2006) and User-Friendly Churches (Barna 1991). Those who are interested in the Bible, but fi nd the original too daunting to tackle, can turn to The Espresso Bible (Winter 2007) and “consume” it more easily: The Bible in Sips, as the subtitle says.
