A Critique of the “Religious Economy”: Ideology and the Market Metaphor in Rational Choice Theories of Religion

Rational choice theories have been very influential in the sociology over the past twenty years. Despite many criticisms of the empirical and theoretical adequacy of such an approach, the paradigm continues to have considerable influence and appeal in the sociological study of religion. This paper examines the use of the market metaphor and its subsidiary metaphors, with a view to understanding how these metaphors work in rational choice theory, and what this might be able to tell us about its enduring influence. I suggest that the metaphor is a useful one for studying religion in a capitalist, commodity oriented society, but when we forget that the “religious economy ” is a metaphor, it comes to serve ideological purposes well suited to the neo-liberal agenda. The market (conceived after a neo-conservative fashion) is thereby naturalised and serves to reinforce the ideology of a one-dimensional society