Buying Buddha, Selling Rumi: Orientalism and the Mystical Marketplace

How Eastern religions are commodified in the modern world, and why it matters

‘An expansive book, covering the intersection of mysticism and capitalism… illuminating.’ Politics, Religion & Ideology

From jewellery to meditation pillows to tourist retreats, religious traditions – especially those of the East – are being commodified as never before. Imitated and rebranded as ‘New Age’ or ‘spiritual’, they are marketed to secular Westerners as an answer to suffering in the modern world, the ‘my...