Consuming a Cathedral

Abstract

The article is a case study of activities taking place in the most important church of Finland, the Cathedral of Turku. The article seeks possibilities to understand contemporary religious change by using theoretical ideas developed in the sociology of consumption. This is done through analysing four cases of how the cathedral has been commodified in different situations. The cases are a celebrity wedding, a dance performance, a marketing brand and a city festival. The results show that even traditional Christian communities have adapted to consumer society and that the ideas developed in the sociology of consumption are useful in understanding current religious change.