The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and People

The Divine Economy argues that religions have become powerful in the modern world due to vigorous competition and accumulation of wealth and power. It suggests that religions are platforms that bring together communities of members seeking various things, and that their function as platforms has allowed them to consolidate and wield power. While religion can be used for good, it can also be used for harm, and political leaders often instrumentalize religious movements for authoritarian ends.

Format: Hardback
Length: 504 pages
Publication date: 14 May 2024
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Religion in the twenty-first century is alive and well across the world, despite its apparent decline in North America and parts of Europe. Vigorous competition between and within religious movements has led to their accumulating great power and wealth. Religions in many traditions have honed their competitive strategies over thousands of years. Today, they are big business; like businesses, they must recruit, raise funds, disburse budgets, manage facilities, organize transportation, motivate employees, and get their message out. In The Divine Economy, economist Paul Seabright argues that religious movements are a special kind of business: they are platforms, bringing together communities of members who seek many different things from one another—spiritual fulfilment, friendship and marriage networks, even business opportunities. Their function as platforms, he contends, is what has allowed religions to consolidate and wield power. This power can be used for good, especially when religious movements provide their members with insurance against the shocks of modern life and a sense of worth in their communities. It can also be used for harm: political leaders often instrumentalize religious movements for authoritarian ends, and religious leaders can exploit the trust of members to inflict sexual, emotional, financial or physical abuse, or to provoke violence against outsiders. Writing in a nonpartisan spirit, Seabright uses insights from economics to show how religion and secular society can work together in a world where some people feel no need for religion, but many continue to respond with enthusiasm.

Weight: 918g
Dimension: 164 x 241 x 35 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691133003