How Faith-Based Marketing Can Forestall the Crisis of Institutionalized Religion

Abstract

The universal prominence of religion is substantiated by the craving for transcendence – an essential characteristic of human existence. Yet, as the times are changing, religion must keep evolving in order to maintain its authority and bolster its influence over the society that produced and cultivated it. Thus, in the United States, for instance, evangelism – the cardinal impulse of Christianity, has been able to stay on top of the waves of change that are rocking our globalized world by putting both the modern principles of economics and the perks of technologically mediated communication in the service of revivalism. Starting from Sandu Frunza’s take on the crisis of institutionalized religion and using Aurel Codoban’s ‘weakened transcendence’ concept and his model of communication contingent on seduction and manipulation, in order to explore some examples of faith-based marketing aimed at various age groups, this paper sets out to evaluate the strategies of religious evangelism that account for its success in the case of American Christian Fundamentalism.