Sustaining Spiritualities in Consumer Cultures

Abstract

This book considers religions as possible sources of critiques of excessive consumerism, and motivators of a more responsible approach to resources, whilst simultaneously recognising and exploring the interrelationships between the two, that is, the consumption practices associated with and generated by religions, and the ways in which religions themselves can become commodified. In this chapter I will attempt to deepen the discussion of the relationships between consumerism, ecology and spirituality, encompassing, in the case of the last, practices and beliefs outside the world’s classic religions. In bringing together these areas I am attempting to explore how in the contemporary world they are in flux, and how in their transformations they impact, and might impact on each other. Whilst it is hoped that some of the areas of the discussion will have a broader relevance, it is focused on the cultural context I am most familiar with, contemporary Britain.