Religion as Brand

Religions and brands address fundamental human needs and motivations and their societal functionalities exhibit certain parallels. This book explores this proposition through an analogical abstraction, in accompany with four case studies to assess the hypothetical aspect of this comparative approach in a real-world context. Religion as Brand: An Analogy to Reconceptualize Religion delves into the complex relationship between religions and brands. Through a process of abstraction, the book creates an analogy to compare religion with brand, which clarifies the similar functionalities of both within society and explores the complexities in this comparison beyond mere semiotic aspects. Through this innovative lens, it unveils the common mechanisms of both phenomena, and unveils fundamental incentives and needs in human-being nature that are evoked and fulfilled by these two social institutions. Across four diverse case studies, the book examines this analogy in real-world contexts and demonstrates how this approach can generate hypotheses. These cases explore diverse scenarios, including ISIS and Al-Qaeda as “sub-brands” of Islam, the dynamic of Islam and Judaism as “brands” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ashura ceremonies as a campaign for Shi'i Islam, and the narrativity of Evangelicalism as a sub-brand of Christianity. This thought-provoking exploration generates new hypotheses and challenges preconceived notions of both religion and brand.