Neoliberal Religion

Mathew Guest’s Neoliberal Religion: Faith and Power in the 21^st Century takes as its starting point the idea that the conditions of neoliberalism demand more than a passing update to the way that religion is studied. More pointedly—and suggested by his use of the title “Neoliberal Religion,” as opposed to something like “Neoliberalism and Religion”—Guest contends that the sociological study of religion must consider “the cultural space within which economics and religious forces come together to achieve meaning and social expression,” instead of reducing its inquiry to the question of religious “negotiation” with neoliberalism (20).

Certainly, Guest recognizes ways that this project has already begun; however, rather than broad economic framings of “deregulated” religious marketplaces, or the assumption that the individualization of religious beliefs has contributed to “an unstructured and unfettered religious ‘free for all,’” Guest wants to focus on the social consequences of neoliberal assumptions and the “structuring influence [they hold] over religious phenomena” (18). Across nine chapters that narrow the book’s focus to particular intersections of “religion” and something-else (e.g., chapter 3: “Religion and Populism”; chapter 6: “Religion and the Entrepreneurial Self”), Guest provides both descriptive accounts of contemporary religious practices in a variety of contexts, as well as a thoughtful synthesis of existing scholarship on those practices and contexts from a wide range of disciplines.

Guest’s engagement with other scholarship is exceptional throughout. In fact, despite his early assurances that Neoliberal Religion isn’t meant to be a survey of the contemporary sociological study of religion, there are probably worse places to start. And this engagement occurs successfully at multiple levels, touching on more foundational voices in the field (especially Max Weber), as well as more contemporary work across the disciplines of sociology, political science, cultural studies, and more. Though no chapter disappoints, standouts include those on post-truth/fake news (chapter 4) and securitization (chapter 5). 

The latter chapter, in particular, exemplifies how Guest directs his reader to consider the interplay between neoliberalism and religion beyond simple economic associations. More to the point, it is the chapter that first makes good on his subtitle, introducing how the “power” in Faith and Power is negotiated in a neoliberal framework. Combining an extensive review of secondary scholarship with his own prior work (see: Mathew Guest et al., “Islam and Muslims on UK University Campuses”, 2020) Guest thoughtfully connects the post-9/11 surveillance of Muslims in the UK and US with secularization trends in the field of sociology that had, since the mid-1960’s, assumed religion’s decline and looked at subsequent restorationist and fundamentalist religious movements with suspicion. Under a securitization framework, whereby the issue of threat assessment has been claimed as existing “outside the realm of politics,” both government-operated and -sponsored security professionals have successfully championed the language of “risk” in order to demarcate “acceptable” forms of religious expression (88).

Moreover, the successful rhetoric of “radicalization” has allowed them to decontextualize religious practice, appealing to a neoliberal idea of selfhood and identity that dehumanizes their surveiled subjects in a bid to justify presumptions about the risk they pose. While Guest’s synthesis of the issue turns abstract at times, focusing on the way that “agency” is conceptualized in such an environment, readers interested in the more immediately tangible consequences of his argument will surely enjoy his notes on how technological developments have enabled a troubling democratization of this security apparatus.

Depending on what you want this book to be, its synthetic quality is either its greatest strength or a sign of its limited scope. Guest provides little unique data to answer his questions—he also doesn’t promise to. Likewise, Guest is modest when it comes to announcing ways that this contribution is meant to fill existing academic gaps. And my sense is that he doesn’t mean to do that either. Rather, the newness of this work is in the way that the author aligns several unrelated bodies of scholarship under a new unifying banner: the sociological study of neoliberal religion; the neoliberal sociological study of religion; maybe the sociology of religion, neoliberal—or some other permutation.

Throughout his writing, often in the conclusions of his chapters before helpful “further reading” guides, Guest leaves brief notes on the various contemporary plights, as he sees them, of his field. From chapter 7, on power: “Most important for the sociology of religion is the task of tracing the connections between the religious and non-religious sources that enable expressions of power” (148); chapter 5, on secularization: “[The preceding argument is meant] to call attention to the problem of assuming [that] securitization processes are uncritically and passively accepted by those whose lives are most impacted by them” (107); and chapter 4 on post-truth: “In assessing how religious movements have been shaped by the post-truth era, one important question will be how have they engaged with these privileged forms of knowledge and with what consequences” (83). Though these might be easy throwaway lines to end a section—that’s how I’d use them—they actually point to the ultimate intent of Guest’s work: to advance the ethical claim that his field must “speak honestly and openly about power and its consequences,” in order to “make important contributions to ethical debate” (177).

All told, Guest’s exhortations might benefit from a more clearly defined set of sparring partners.  But not every manuscript needs to be a tome, and Guest’s work probably profits from its brevity more often than not. Especially if you are looking for selections that speak at the level of an entire field or discipline (Guest is focused on the sociology of religion, but it would do just as well in a more general religious studies syllabus), Neoliberal Religion offers a comprehensive and surprisingly accessible survey of a wide range of contemporary topics and—if we take Guest’s urging seriously—problems.

Troy Mikanovich is  a PhD candidate in religion and political science at Claremont Graduate University.

Troy Mikanovich

Date Of Review:

September 30, 2023