Includes index

Part I. Reassessment -- ch. 1. Why are Americans so religious? The limitations of market explanations / E. Brooks Holifield -- Part II. Evangelicals and markets -- ch. 2. Weber and the eigthteenth-century religious developments in America / Mark Valeri -- ch. 3. Bill Graham, Christian manliness, and the shaping of the Evangelical subculture / Grant Wacker -- ch. 4. Money matters and family matters : James Dobson and Focus on the Family on the traditional family and capitalist America / Hilde Lovdal Stephens -- Part III. Religious book markets -- ch. 5. The commodification of William James : the book business and the rise of liberal spirituality in the twentith-century United States / Matthew S. Hedstrom -- ch. 6. Literature and the economy of the sacred / Gunter Leypoldt -- ch. 7. Publishers and profit motives : the economic history of Left Behind / Daniel Silliman -- Part IV. Religious resistance and adaptation to the market -- ch. 8. Selling infinite selves : youth culture and contemporary festivals / Sarah M. Pike -- ch. 9. Religious branding and the quest to meet consumer needs : Joel Osteen's "Message of hope" / Kayja Rakow -- ch. 10. Unsilent partners : sports stadiums and their appropriation and use of sacred space / Anthony Santoro -- Part V. Critical reglection and prospects -- ch. 11. Considering the neoliberal in American religion / Kathryn Lofton

This collection of essays by American and European authors focuses on the diverse interactions between religious and commercial practices in U.S. history. In essays ranging from colonial American mercantilism to modern megachurches, from literary markets to popular festivals, the authors explore how religious behaviour is shaped by commerce and how commercial practices are informed by religion