Page - 190 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/02

Throughout his analysis, Moberg argues for the influence of marketization on religious organizations, noting that these influences become reified in “the promotion and circulation of certain clusters of [religious] discourses” that are deeply rooted in neoliberalism (48). This is to say that a CDA of publicly available church documents reveals the presence of neoliberal ideologies, specifically in the rationale for the adoption of new public management (NPM) techniques as instruments of organizational change. It must be emphasized, however, that while cultural context is a factor in Moberg’s analysis (namely in how cultural differences have affected the historical development of religiosity in the study’s chosen countries), this is not the focus of the book. Instead, Moberg chooses to focus on the neoliberal underpinnings of NPM techniques and how these techniques impact the communication strategies of mainline churches where they are used to increase public visibility and there- fore market share. As Moberg defines them, NPM techniques are “premised on the idea that the public sector will benefit from adopting the organizational cultures, routines, and practices of the private sector” (49). The significance of this to Moberg’s study is that churches are no exception to this idea. Indeed, Moberg is quick to point out that the sharp decline in social and cultural impor- tance and influence of mainline Protestant churches since the 1960s has been met in recent years by neoliberal efforts to maintain social relevance via NPM; which is to say that these churches desire to increase their public visibility and therefore their market share. Exactly how this occurs is an aspect of the book that Moberg fails to fully address, however. For example, while he is quick to point out that marketiza- tion serves as an “agent” of institutional religious change, he candidly admits that it does not actually exercise any agency in and of itself (54). As he sees it, the display of marketization discourses by religious organizations signifies the influence of larger forces of neoliberalism for the simple reason that church documents display a deliberate, self-reflective understanding of the need to adopt strategies which are implicitly neoliberal. Essentially then, Moberg pulls a sleight of hand in that he implicitly argues that neoliberal forces, dressed up as NPM practices, have crept into religious spheres of influence but that these forces and practices are by no means a direct influence and as such should not be viewed from a reductionist, deterministic standpoint producing agency or causality. Such a deficiency presents a problem. On one hand, Moberg offers up an ex- planation of how mainline Protestant churches suffering from declining social relevance hope to regain some of this relevance by the adoption of neoliberal ideologies and NPM practices, yet on the other, his analysis does not initially account for where the impetus for this change stems from. Moberg, however, believes he has found his way out of the trap of causality by invoking mediatiza- 190 | Adam Bajan www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/2, 189–192