The Marketing of the Protestant Church? Consumer-orientation and low threshold supplies in German urban churches

Authors

  • Jens Schlamelcher

Keywords:

Low Threshold Offers, Marketization, De-Dogmatization, German Protestantism

Abstract

This article examines religious and social changes in relation to economic demands. The Protestant Church in Germany faces a financial crisis since the early 1990s due to shrinking church taxes. Attracting new members in a secular environment has thus become a key imperative. In order to meet this goal, new sites such as so-called city churches have evolved, which, by conducting so called ‘low threshold offers’, address a religously relatively indifferent audience. The article argues that these city churches represent a de-dogmatized, de-Christinanzized religious phenomenon within the wider context of the Protestant Church.

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Author Biography

Jens Schlamelcher

Center for Religious Studies (CERES), Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

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How to Cite

Schlamelcher, J. (2012). The Marketing of the Protestant Church? Consumer-orientation and low threshold supplies in German urban churches. REVER: Journal for the Study of Religion, 12(1), 125–143. Retrieved from https://revistas.pucsp.br/rever/article/view/10484

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2012): História da Religião - Perspectivas Culturalistas

Section

Seção Temática

License

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