Neoliberal Religion with Dr. Mathew Guest

<p>If you have been raised in a religious context, you may assume that the way your church, your denomination, conceived of faith was and is the very definition of faith. Obviously, there is a lot that impacts what we believe and how we practice and express that belief.</p> <p>Dr. Mathew Guest helpfully describes how a particular way of seeing the world (neo-liberalism that defines much of politics and economics in our world) has come to impact religion in general and Christian faith in the west in particular. As many people who grew up in the church look towards a more hopeful understanding of faith, the disentangling of worldview and religion can prove to be a key part of moving forward. Perhaps what you were told you had to believe to even be considered a Christian had more to do with power and culture than it had to do with faith.</p> <p>Our conversation with Dr. Guest focused on his book Neoliberal Religion: Faith and Power in the Twenty-First Century. You can also read his recent article “<a href='https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2022/11/the-new-spirit-of-capitalism-how-neoliberalism-has-changed-the-way-we-do-religion/'>The New Spirit of Capitalism: How neoliberalism has changed the way we do religion,</a>” published November 2022.</p> <p>This episode has a lot of terms, some coined by Dr. Guest, so we thought it would be helpful to add some definitions.</p> Episode Terminology: <p>Neoliberalism: Neo-Liberalism can be seen as a perspective on politics and economics that assumes some key things. Firstly, there is a heightened individualism, the sense that value and virtue are conceived as aligning with the individual and individual rights and identity. Secondly, there is marketization, the way of seeing that ascribes value to that which is successful or popular in the marketplace of ideas, views and goods. Finally, there is a commodification of society and life. People, agencies and ideas are seen to have value in how they can be evaluated as a commodity. Neo-Liberalism as a political concept ha