The dark side of religious individualism: A Marcusian exploration:
Sociologists of religion have recently focused on the growth of religious individualism in Western societies. Whether seen as a new religious trend or as a cultural correlate to the general weakening of civic organizations in the contemporary era, it is often presented as the growing tendency in rel...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2019]
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| In: |
Critical research on religion
Year: 2019, Volume: 7, Issue: 2, Pages: 130-146 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Marcuse, Herbert 1898-1979
/ Western world
/ Religious identity
/ Individualism
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| IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion ZB Sociology |
| Further subjects: | B
social critique
B Individualism B Religion B one-dimensional B individualized religion B Herbert Marcuse |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Sociologists of religion have recently focused on the growth of religious individualism in Western societies. Whether seen as a new religious trend or as a cultural correlate to the general weakening of civic organizations in the contemporary era, it is often presented as the growing tendency in religious life. It is also frequently presented in a positive light. This article explores a different alternative. Based on the work of Herbert Marcuse, it asks whether religious individualism heightens or undercuts the possibility of opposition to the status quo. Marcuse's underlying argument implies that when religion becomes a lifestyle choice, it becomes just another consumer good-one that encourages a one-dimensional "happy consciousness" that lacks the depth to support true social critique. In this view, religious individualism undercuts human emancipation. |
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| ISSN: | 2050-3040 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Critical research on religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/2050303219848066 |