Putting a Price on Zen: The Business of Redefining Religion for Global Consumption
Over the past several decades, Zen has become a mark of global cosmopolitanism. Largely divorced from its religious context, the word “ zen ” appears in many languages with a remarkable diversity of accepted meanings and usages. In this paper, I outline the historical and cultural factors which have...
| 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: |
2015
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| In: |
Journal of global buddhism
Year: 2015, Volume: 16, Pages: 51-69 |
| Further subjects: | B
Consumption
B Zen B commoditization B Semiotics B Marketing |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Rights Information: | CC BY-NC 4.0 |
| Summary: | Over the past several decades, Zen has become a mark of global cosmopolitanism. Largely divorced from its religious context, the word “ zen ” appears in many languages with a remarkable diversity of accepted meanings and usages. In this paper, I outline the historical and cultural factors which have contributed to the dramatic semiotic transformation of Zen in the popular imagination and international media over the past century. I demonstrate that ideas about Zen have evolved through strategic cultural and linguistic associations, and show how the resulting polysemy has led to Zen becoming an ideal marketing byword - one that is freely appropriated and commoditized in a manner that differentiates Zen from almost all other religious traditions. I further suggest that for the Japanese Zen sects, the global popularity and cosmopolitan appeal of Zen has come hand-in-hand with a decentralization of traditional authority and a challenge to the clergy’s role in shaping the future development of Zen. |
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| ISSN: | 1527-6457 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of global buddhism
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1305896 |