Chapter 23 From Protestant Ethic to Neoliberal Logic: Evangelicals at the Interface of Culture and Politics
In: Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, Volume 32Search for other papers by Mathew Guest in
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Abstract
This article brings Max Weber’s argument about the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism into conversation with contemporary accounts of society framed by neoliberalism and traces some implications in terms of emergent patterns of authority. It asks how an alignment between Evangelicalism and capitalism has fostered a distinctive cross-fertilisation in recent years, including a re-negotiation of what counts as normative, credible, and successful. It argues that a moralised sense of vocation has been overtaken in some influential circles by an urge to mirror the embodied and broadcast aesthetics of the entertainment industry, and by the importation of business strategies that instrumentalise capital, influence and media exposure. Drawing on examples from recent Anglo-American Evangelical history – inspired in turns by a desire for evangelistic success and political influence – the article examines how this pattern is both rooted in a long-standing tradition of technological engagement while also moving into a phase that foregrounds utilitarian logic in order to maximise Evangelical exposure and credibility.