Introduction:
1. Even though there are no statistics on the economics of religion one might reasonably assume that if one calculated the aggregate turnover and cash flow of all the religions and religious activities in the world, their aggregate buying power and the goods and services they purchase, that we are talking about one of the biggest businesses in the world!
2. Organized religion and New Age religiosity are each multi-billion dollar branches of the economy.
3. Furthermore, Religion is the first and largest “information/communications business” in the world. It receives processes and transmits information and has been doing so for thousands of years.
4. Religion has made effective use of every information/communications technology that has ever existed: speaking, writing, printing, radio, television, cassette tapes, Internet etc.
5. Religion has reinvented itself endless times over the centuries – redefining its mission, repackaging its image, reformulating its message.
6. The oldest and most successful corporate entity in history is probably the Catholic Church – its relatively flat hierarchy, which makes provision for autonomous decision making while keeping its cadre on message and on mission, has anticipated modern management theory by millennia.
7. Organized Religion’s marketing and sales are relentless – its market research and up to date sales techniques are second to none. It will always mold its service to the needs of the consumer.
8. Religion and religiosity are universal products: every culture and every civilization in history (and pre-history) has had a least one religion and the desire for transcendent meaning is universal in every human individual on the planet (even atheists).
9. Religion per se constitutes probably the biggest consumer market in the world. Therefore it is not farfetched to project the future business possibilities inherent in religion – especially for a research company.
“Takeaways”
• Feminism –has been one of the most dominate themes of the 20th century. In the West it has revolutionized or begun to revolutionize every institution, including traditional religions and particularly syncretic religiosity. Some of the participants felt that feminism’s impact on the non-developed and semi-developed countries and the way they live out their own faith traditions in the 21st century would be just as profound. Others expressed doubts given present trends of growing inequality in various parts of the world. But given that both the subjective awareness and objective options of women have grown exponentially and that gender rights have become the norm in every aspect of international and multi-lateral activity, it is more likely that, combined with other developments, over the long term feminism will be a significant change agent even amongst traditional patriarchal societies that have become part of the Global system, such as Japan and Korea.
• Globalization – Trade is ethnically neutral and inherently “tolerant”. It is simply bad for business to kill your customers and your suppliers. Faith traditions located in countries that wish to be part of the global trade system will have to adopt at least an appearance of tolerance or risk being seen as hostile to the economic interests of their own countries. Ironically, this civil tolerance could co-exist with even more stringent (and privately intolerant) observance of religious doctrine (or, conversely, it could be a modifier). What is clear is that the more overtly intolerant a society is, the poorer it will be! It is intolerance that causes poverty not poverty intolerance. The jealousy of the intolerant impoverished could have two results – it could make them even more intolerant and fanatic or it could eventually cause them to transform. But no faith tradition can continue for long to be indifferent to globalization as a change agent.
• Constitutionalization – not democratization is the name of the game. Constitutionalism is coerced “tolerance”. It protects minorities and individuals against the tyranny of the majority. It guarantees a plurality of views and creates a society that is amenable to the eventual internalization of tolerance as a general societal attitude that can eventually ameliorate even one’s most private prejudices. Most of the participants agreed that the requirements of globalization will necessitate constitutionalization. Constitutionalism will eventually require every faith tradition coeval with political entities wishing to be part of the global system to adapt its civil behavior to the demands of a mutually tolerant pluralistic international society. Constitutional norms will become an ever more important change agent as we move deeper into the 21st century. Faith traditions ignore this at their own risk.
• Secularism and Individualism – The human race has created a secular world framework of capitalism, technology, mass communications, trade, and individual rights. In our everyday lives, this reality has primacy over group identity. Democracy, commercial law, international trade agreements, and regional trading groups affect us as individuals. Yet, secularism’s triumph as the practical framework of human civilization appears to have created an immense cultural and spiritual malaise. Worldwide, growing numbers of individuals and groups are embarking on spiritual/cultural quests, seeking to correlate spiritual needs with the obvious benefits of living in our technological world. But one’s spiritual identity has become more a matter of individual choice than of accident of birth. Modern individuals pick and choose multiple identities of value for them. Great traditions are no longer sold as being inherently valuable. Their value is often argued in utilitarian terms. It is becoming increasingly clear that faith traditions that provide spiritual benefit for a critical mass of individuals over historical periods of time will survive and flourish.
• Fundamentalism and Soft Religion – Fundamentalism appears to be an almost universal phenomenon in the undeveloped nonwestern world, most noticeably in the Islamic world. For the foreseeable future, the entire world will be preoccupied with the consequences and ramifications of fundamentalism of various religions. Many participants agreed (in various ways and for various reasons) that one of the reactions to fundamentalism will be an equally strong global advocacy for ‘soft religion’. This will come from the grass-roots, somewhat similar to the anti-war protest and the political counter-culture movements in the late 1960s and in the 1970s. ‘Soft religion’ will acknowledge diversity of peoples, cultures, and religions. The key motivator will be a commitment to human dignity per se, as an effect of the requirements and consequences of globalization and constitutionalization.
• Pre-modern, modern and postmodern existing concurrently in dynamic interaction and conflict has created a global situation of cultural tension and conflict! This tension has resulted in conflict between modernists and anti modernists and has become a major global change agent. All the major religions are pre-modern in origin but not all have responded to modernity to the same extent and none have done so completely. All of this is concurrent with the rise of the non-Western World (Asia, Africa, Latin America) as a dominant global religious force. The unevenness of accommodating to modern life constitutes part of the religious/cultural tension within and between faith traditions. This requires constructing future visions that can unite a pluralistic civilization around common goals.
Business Opportunities
1. Marketing Services: analyze religions and religious attitudes in a rapidly changing world according to psychologist Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Values: physiological needs, security, love & belonging, respect & self respect, self-actualization & self-transcendence. Maslow did not sanction the radical dichotomy between science and religion and felt that “religious” (small r) peak experiences were an ultimate expression of one’s essential humanity. Such a service would be for marketing purposes and how to direct advertising. This would be a service provided at the highest end of the information-knowledge scale.
2. SWOT/PEST Evaluations – what are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a particular religious tradition at a given time and what is the political, economic, social and technical environment influencing it. For example a business could use this to develop special services designed to answer the needs of well educated but observant Muslim women living in western societies – or in Islamic countries. Religious Feminism is an economic opportunity driven by a particular political and social environment. The status of women in every religious tradition will be in constant flux during this century. SWOT/PEST can be applied to other needs besides feminism: setting up a branch, marketing a product etc.
3. Cyber Chapels and Chat rooms – how does an Orthodox Jew or Evangelical Protestant keep in touch with his religious obligations when on a business trip to India? How does a lone Hindu doctor in a small town in Oklahoma do the same? Religions are communal, yet globalization often deprives the follower of a particular tradition from feeling part of his tradition. One might envisage Google or Yahoo either running or hosting such a service. Part of this service could be commoditized, part personalized.
4. Interactive online theological discussions (chat rooms) – come on line with your spiritual dilemmas and concerns. Find your “soul mate” (literally) – perhaps the people you are closest to spiritually live thousands of miles away. This could be a spin off service of the Cyber Chapel/Chat rooms. Information and views expressed would be part of this service’s “eternal library” and with a special search engine a customer could bring up previous observations of the same issue that was troubling him or her. This service answers the needs of the globalization and individualism takeaways.
5. Personalized study kits (off the Internet) on religions, comparative religions and individual spiritual needs. Given the proper algorithm and questionnaire this could be both individualized and commoditized. It could be marketed as a Self-realization service. Write in your concerns and interests and get your own syncretic religious package. “Our Applied Theologics Service”.
6. Producing time and project specific cultural profiles for business people. Since religious traditions have internal and external drivers in ever increasing intensity and interaction, this service cannot be provided by Academia, which by its nature is incapable of working in a real-time environment.
7. Producing “Future Visions” (“The Future Vision Service”) for emerging multi-cultural religiously pluralistic countries: Nigeria 2030 for example (or embryonic homegrown companies in such countries). Only a future vision can provide the meta-ideological and meta-cultural framework in which the citizens of such a culturally diverse country (250 tribes and Christian Moslem divide) can work together.
8. Cultural due diligence service for global companies. For example biotechnological companies must be particularly sensitive to religious doctrines. If you are engaged in stem cell research you might not want to locate a facility in a community dominated by Catholics and Evangelical Protestants – who believe that the fertilized egg is already a human being. A Jewish environment might be more amenable given that majority Orthodox Jewish opinion holds that the embryo only becomes human 40 days after conception. This kind of service must also be time and project specific – as religious opinion on these kinds of things is in flux.
9. Syncretic African and Chinese Christianity might have special needs that the established Churches are not willing to sanction or serve. In another 10 years all of China will be online and in another 20 all of Africa. Communities with unique needs can have e-books modeled especially for them. Religious information could be “Lego-ed” and stored in a virtual library – to be matched to the expressed concerns and interests and needs of the community. A semi-commoditized service.
10. Information service about the practices (or changed practices) of various religions. For example how many non-Jews would know that an Orthodox Jew would appreciate being offered tea or coffee in a glass rather than a porcelain cup? All faith traditions have their peculiar practices. For example Islam has a lunar calendar without a leap year. This means that Ramadan (the month of fasting during daylight hours) can move from autumn to spring. You would not get optimal results from a business trip to a Muslim country during this period. Or if you called your Muslim colleague you could say “I hope you have an easy fast”! These niceties are deeply appreciated when performed by someone not of your culture.
Futurizing the Jews 