Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion

This jointly authored book critically examines the use of spirituality in a neo-liberal world. It argues that, after the privatization of religion during the Enlightenment, there has been a second privatization in the post-1980s global marketplace. This second privatization is related to commercial and corporate powers that have taken over the language of spirituality for the market. The book thus offers a new typology for the relationship between religion and capitalism and shows how ‘brand-culture’ has transformed the idea of the spiritual. It provides a new genealogy of spirituality, an exploration of western and eastern traditions and explores the use of spirituality in business. This book has received considerable international interest, went into digital printing within six months after the first print run, and has already been translated into Dutch and has other forthcoming translations. The originality of the book is in providing a critical interpretation of market and business based spirituality, not least in the ‘Body, Mind, Spirit’ publishing industry