The Wealth of Religions
The Political Economy of Believing and Belonging
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- 19,99 €
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- 19,99 €
Publisher Description
How religious beliefs and practices can influence the wealth of nations
Which countries grow faster economically—those with strong beliefs in heaven and hell or those with weak beliefs in them? Does religious participation matter? Why do some countries experience secularization while others are religiously vibrant? In The Wealth of Religions, Rachel McCleary and Robert Barro draw on their long record of pioneering research to examine these and many other aspects of the economics of religion. Places with firm beliefs in heaven and hell measured relative to the time spent in religious activities tend to be more productive and experience faster growth. Going further, there are two directions of causation: religiosity influences economic performance and economic development affects religiosity. Dimensions of economic development—such as urbanization, education, health, and fertility—matter too, interacting differently with religiosity. State regulation and subsidization of religion also play a role.
The Wealth of Religions addresses the effects of religious beliefs on character traits such as work ethic, thrift, and honesty; the Protestant Reformation and its long-term effects on education and religious competition; Communism’s suppression of and competition with religion; the effects of Islamic laws and regulations on the functioning of markets and, hence, on the long-term development of Muslim countries; why some countries have state religions; analogies between religious groups and terrorist organizations; the violent origins of the Dalai Lama’s brand of Tibetan Buddhism; and the use by the Catholic Church of saint-making as a way to compete against the rise of Protestant Evangelicals.
Timely and incisive, The Wealth of Religions provides fresh insights into the vital interplay between religion, markets, and economic development.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Economists McCleary (Global Compassion) and Barro (Macroeconomics) set out to explore the "economic costs and benefits" of religion in this slapdash work. The authors lay out an ambitious plan to discuss religion in the world at large particularly Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism in order to explore how economic growth and government regulation of the "religion market" (a phrase they never define) affect religious participation. Unfortunately, the book delivers on none of its promises. While the authors provide sound economic analysis, they seem to have only the loosest grasp of many of the religions they discuss they equate the establishment of Anglicanism (a state religion) with a requirement for Anglican belief, completely omit Judaism from their list of world religions, and describe Buddhism as a "salvific" religion. Often, their sources are oddly out of date; they cite Bernard Lewis's 1993 Islam in History, a volume which has been largely discredited as Islamophobic and supplanted by the work of other scholars. This sloppy work is a disappointment and reintroduces some ideas that are far better left behind.