ABSTRACT
The social and cultural context and effects of economic development have been a focus of inquiry in the human sciences. Earlier investigations were often framed by the tenets of modernization theory, which often presumed that secularization would accompany democratization, nationalism, and capitalist economic growth (Rostow 1960). The growth of the middle classes has precipitated new political orientations, projects of subjectification, and practices of consumption and commodification. However, one of the most striking dimensions of economic development and the new middle classes in Asia has been its religious dimensions. The rapid expansion of the middle classes has strengthened and transformed existing religious traditions and, in other cases, facilitated the introduction of new religious movements and practices. This is particularly notable given that modernization theory predicted a declining significance for religion (or at the very least its consignment to the private, domestic sphere) and raises the question: why has the expansion of the middle classes resulted in enhanced religious piety? Moreover, how has the expansion of the middle classes created new techniques of religious practice?
