How much may a religious experience cost?Commercial versions of religious supply in the Netherlands

Abstract

On the market of religion, there are many entrepeneurs that offer services on a commercial basis that were previously offered by the main Christian churches for free. This paper analyses and describes these services and discusses their relation to notions of religion in general and to Christian religion specifically. The data are taken from Dutch society; this context is discussed in the first section. The Netherlands are a pluralistic yet very secular country, where still many people feel a need for religious services. Combined with the absence of regulation of religion, this results in many entrepreneurs offering their service. The second section is theoretical and discusses the nature of religion, the role of the religious market, and the functions of religion and activities by religious suppliers. In the third section, examples are discussed under the headings ‘service in the life cysle’, ‘service in questions of life’ and ‘service in social cohesion’. It becomes clear that these commercial entrepeneurs offer a New Age-form of religion - as a divine inner experience. They also fulfill many functions of religion and churches. On theological grounds, the author thinks there still is a good chance for typical Christian or church-oriented forms of religious services.