Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
6-2012
Abstract
Existing religious economy models maintain that as religious regulation increases, levels of interreligious competition decrease. But new understandings of the market dynamics of religious oligopolies necessitate new understandings of religious competitiveness. A relational model of competitiveness using the case of evangelical Christianity in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka is proposed. In Sri Lanka the informal religious economy is defined by competitiveness among evangelical Christian groups and, although not recognized by the state, is closely regulated. The focus in this article is on the scalar determinations of evangelical competitiveness, patterns of secrecy and subterfuge, the formation of strategic extra-group networks that enable competitiveness, and outcomes of a relational model. Three insights are offered that can be used as a starting point for further work on religious oligopolies, informal economies, and relational understandings of religious competition.
Keywords
oligopoly, religious economy, religious competition, informal economy, evangelical Christianity, Sri Lanka
Discipline
Asian Studies | Religion
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Volume
51
Issue
2
First Page
203
Last Page
219
ISSN
0021-8294
Identifier
10.1111/j.1468-5906.2012.01642.x
Publisher
Wiley: 24 months
Citation
WOODS, Orlando.(2012). Sri Lanka's informal religious economy: Evangelical competitiveness and Buddhist hegemony in perspective. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 51(2), 203-219.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2428
Copyright Owner and License
Author
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2012.01642.x