Intimate circles and mass meetings. The social forms of event-structured religion in the era of globalized markets and hyper-mediatization

Abstract

This article draws on the contributions of Monika Salzbrunn and Julia Day Howell in this issue, which it proposes to recast and synthesize. The article argues that: (1) religious phenomena across the globe are increasingly structured by the vectors of consumerism, market ideologies and hyper-mediatization; (2) religious phenomena are not as amorphous, fragmented and diffused as they seem, but rather obey certain characteristics typical of this new regulation, notwithstanding of course variegated local realities tied to specific histories, contexts and cultures; (3) religious individualization is not narcissistic but intrinsically tied to corresponding social forms, i.e. social interactions and communities; (4) these social forms are increasingly event-based experiences of community; (5) event-based, non-institutional and extraordinary forms of religiosity occurring in the blurred boundaries of social spheres are highly important loci that social sciences should consider in order to better understand religion today; (6) the social forms of religion today are ideal-typically intimate circles and mass gatherings, both being complementary to each other and (7) cast against a global backdrop.