Readers, believers, consumers, and audiences: Complicating the relationship between consumption and contemporary narrative spiritualties

• Published in: Australian journal of communication Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 119 - 131
• Main Author: Kirby, Danielle
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brisbane Dr. Roslyn Petelin 01.06.2012
• Subjects: Actors; Attention; Beliefs; Christianity; Consumers; Consumption; Fiction; Knowledge, Theory of (Religion); Metaphysics; Narratives; Popular culture; Religion; Religion and culture; Religious aspects; Secularism; Spirituality; United Kingdom > UK
• ISSN: 0811-6202; 2202-9222

Since the middle of the 20th century, there has been a steady growth of spiritualties and religions that explicitly use narrative fiction within their respective metaphysics. These types of belief have only recently attracted the attention of researchers, but increasingly they are being given attention as emergent forms of genuine religiosity. Such narrative spiritualties are often presumed to function primarily within a framework of consumption, however, and tend to carry with them the corollary stigma of being less- or in- valid forms of religiosity. Further, such beliefs are often treated in such a fashion precisely due to their explicit relationship to mediated popular cultural products. Taking as an exemplary case the Otherkin and their use of popular source material, this paper will explore some of the major characterisations of consumption and their applicability. While by no means arguing that consumption plays no part in such spiritualties, this paper rather seeks to unpick the way that consumption is located with regard to narrative religion, and will suggest that the overall construction is problematic.