Lesser Varieties of Religious Experience

There is a a recent article in the "Journal of Consumer Research" called Religiosity in the Abandoned Apple Newton Brand Community (Link is to an abstract). This is a link to the PDF of the entire paper. Take a look at the paper for a minute or two; it is worth a glance for its off-putting and uncomfortable mix of marketing and academic jargon, and its often laugh-out-loud attempts to shoehorn committed hobby-fanatic speak into "religion." The parts about "motifs" and "magico-religious metaphors and imagery" remind me of George Lucas's bogus project to retroactively turn his space-western into a Joseph Campbell myth. The writers could have much more easily found parallels between fandom and religion by taking a look at serious sports fans (i.e. Red Sox fans).