Consuming Religion

"Lofton's Consuming Religion is a refreshing and thought-provoking collection of essays in which she aims to illuminate the relationship with modern consumption culture. Breaking down this extensive endeavor into remarkable sub-themes, Lofton explores the category of religion as 'a category of law and learning, as a description of social movements, and as a summary of identity or claim of belief, ' and the ways in which consumer culture illuminates what individuals value."-- "Numen"
"In a critical voice recognizably hers and only hers, Lofton brilliantly probes the most cunning junctures of contemporary neoliberal religion. Ranging over corporate cubicles; the advertising industry; finance; the dark arts of the creation, promotion, and destruction of celebrity; and much, much more, Lofton shows how at the deepest levels of imagination, desire, and discipline the modern histories of neoliberalism and religion--and the contemporary practices of both--have been and remain utterly entwined. Consuming Religion is a learned, incisive, often revelatory work; it is also deeply humane and compassionate. With this book, Lofton not only emerges clearly as the contemporary study of religion's Walter Benjamin; she also helps restore the social critical voice of religious studies. Such a project was never more urgent than it is today."-- "Robert A. Orsi, author of History and Presence"
"In sum Consuming Religion is an elegant, critical, wide-ranging and thought-provoking account of religion and spirituality in America today."-- "Times Higher Education"
"Kathryn Lofton breaks wide the definition of religion, and in so doing, redefines the interplay between the sacred and the so-called secular--whether it's pop icons or parenting, the Kardashians or corporate culture. We have been waiting for a book that elevates the discourse about how marketing and faith collide and co-mingle. Consuming Religion is that book."-- "Mara Einstein, author of Black Ops Advertising and Brands of Faith"
"Kathryn Lofton's Consuming Religion is a modern classic. It is the sequel to Durkheim's Elementary Forms of Religious Life and is destined to be as enduring. Moving beyond stale debates on secularism, pressing us to see religion in new forms of modernity, Lofton takes us on a lively tour of religion in the everyday practices and institutions of consumer society. In the end, this tour de force leaves us with both a new respect for, and critique of, religion as consumerism and consumerism as religion."-- "Mark S. Cladis, Brown University"
"Lofton's Consuming Religion takes us through the Kardashians, cubicle design, and Goldman Sachs, among other phenomena, to reveal the relationship of religion and popular culture. At its best, this book feels like an exciting revelation about who and what we should be addressing in religious studies."-- "Reading Religion"
"With big data and mass customization changing marketing strategies and transforming patterns of consumption at warp speed, Consuming Religion is a timely exploration of a world in which reality is branded. Unexpected connections and juxtapositions reveal religion in unexpected places and practices. To follow Kathryn Lofton's romp through today's mediascape is to discover the superficiality of pop culture to be surprisingly profound."-- "Mark C. Taylor, Columbia University"
The separation of her research into examinations of niches within neo-liberal and late capitalist practices diffuses as well as sharpens her analytical and erudite examination of corporate cubicles, the Kardashians, soap advertising, parenting, ritualism debates in the 19th century and Britney Spears, to name but a few of her diverse and detailed examples packaged as Consuming Religion. . . seeing her media coverage through the filters of Georges Bataille, Claude Levi-Strauss, Sigmund Freud and Rene Girard deepens relevance."-- "Spectrum Culture"