Religion and Economics

A long inscription in the Nubian tomb of Pennut of Aniba from the late New Kingdom (about 1150 BCE) records a number of fields donated to support a cult for the statue of the living king in the main temple of Aniba.
The first part of the study places the text in a wider context of related sources: other foundation texts from the New Kingdom; evidence for the implementation of statue cults; economic texts from tombs. The presentation of this quite disparate bundle of data is followed by an attempt to set the economic data in relation to the sacral purpose of the given foundation. It is argued, that the presentation of juridical and economic documents forms only part of a more elaborate narrative in text and picture presenting the installation of a new cult. The aim of these cults consists – economically speaking – in the production of Heilsgüter. For this purpose an institution is formed consisting of the cult object (statue) as generator of the Heilsgut, people acting in the cult (priests), and offerings providing an economic basis (foundations consisting of fields or titles of deliveries).  Apart from the production of Heilsgüter, belonging to the field of sacral or symbolic economy, the habitual activity of founding cult institutions creates a pattern for a wide range of activities in the field of material economy, especially for the transfer of property rights.
The last part argues that the presentation of the foundation text in the tomb of Pennut has the primary aim not to document land ownership, but to demonstrate the successful ”operation” of the statue of the king, thus supporting the de facto independent rule of Pennut in his province. The symbolic capital generated by the statue was of much more value for Pennut than the material possessions accumulated in the foundation.

Ein in der Grabanlage des Pennut von Aniba in Nubien aufgezeichneter Text aus dem späten Neuen Reich (ca. 1150 v.u.Z.) beschreibt eine Reihe von Landstücken, die zur Betreuung des Kultes an einer Statue des regierenden Königs im Haupttempel von Aniba gestiftet wurden.
Im ersten Teil der Untersuchung wird dieser Text und der durch ihn beschriebene Vorgang in Beziehung zu verwandten Quellen gesetzt: zu weiteren Stiftungstexten aus dem Neuen Reich; zu Belegen über die Einrichtung von Statuenkulten; und schließlich zu ökonomischen Texten, die aus funerären Anlagen stammen. Anschließend an die Präsentation dieser sehr heterogenen Materialgruppe wird versucht, die darin vorliegenden Angaben zu ökonomischen Fragen mit dem eigentlichen sakralen Zweck der jeweiligen Stiftung in Beziehung zu setzen. Es wird dargelegt, dass die Präsentation von Verwaltungsakten mit juristischem und ökonomischem Inhalt als Teile von umfangreicheren Ereignisnarrativen in Schrift und Bild zu sehen ist, in denen die Grundlegung neuer Kulte beschrieben werden. Primäres Ziel dieser Kulte ist – ökonomisch formuliert – die Produktion von Heilsgütern, zu deren Erzeugung eine Institution aus dem als Generator des Heilsgutes fungierenden Kultobjekt (= Statue), den im Kult handelnden Personal (= Priester) und den zum Unterhalt des Kultes notwendigen Opfern und deren ökonomischer Grundlagen (= Stiftung aus Landbesitz oder Versorgungsansprüchen) gebildet wird. Neben dieser, dem Feld einer sakralen oder symbolischen Ökonomie zuzuordnenden Produktion von Heilsgütern bildet der habituelle Vorgang der Stiftung / Einrichtung einer Kultinstitution auch die Grundlage für vielfältige Aktivitäten im Feld der dinglichen Ökonomie, insbesondere bei der Übertragung von Besitzansprüchen.
Im letzten Teil wird dargelegt, dass die Präsentation des Stiftungstexts in der funerären Anlage des Pennut weniger darauf abzielt, Landbesitz zu demonstrieren, als vielmehr den erfolgreichen ”Betrieb” der Königsstatue, deren Existenz zur Legitimation einer de facto selbstständigen Herrschaft des Pennut führte. Das durch den ”Betrieb” der Statue generierte symbolische Kapital besaß für Pennut deutlich höheren Wert, als die in der Stiftung versammelten dinglichen Güter.

Missionaries have often had strict instructions to stay out of politics. But, politics influenced the ability of missionaries to fulfill their main goals -converting people and assisting the local church. Thus, many missionaries were drawn into politics.

Many parts of the world have been written off as resistant to development. We may think of most of Africa, parts of Latin America, the Middle East, and a few of the countries in Southeast Asia. Then there is the Pacific, which has shown disappointing economic growth rates over the past decade or two (Francis & Hezel, 2009).
Of course, many of these countries still lack the reliable institutions, beginning with stable government and the rule of law, that are clearly a requisite for development. That is why according to today’s canon, differences in economic performance can only be explained by different economic institutions and public policies.
On the other hand, considerable cultural differences do still exist and even today cultural diversity remains definitely significant among different continents, states and even regions and we believe it is must be taken into account, despite the processes of globalization and immigration.
Thus, in our work we are going to critically analyze the limits of the traditional theory about economic development and - by describing what culture is and which are the prior beliefs and values shaped by it- we are going to study the channels through which culture had and has an impact on the economic growth of countries.

The short-selling of stocks has long been considered impossible in Islamic finance. This chapter begins by reviewing why. It then moves on to the search to develop Islamic alternatives to conventional short-selling. Several systems have recently come on the market that aim to replicate short-selling in Shariah-compliant ways. This includes one being developed by Bursa Malaysia and the Malaysia Securities Commission that replicates stock borrowing and lending using Waʿd (unilateral promise). Other industry players have endorsed shortsale replication systems that use the Salam contract, the Arbun contract, or Waʿd in a different way. Hedge funds and other institutional investors seeking to be Shariah-compliant are keen to adopt an Islamic alternative to short-selling, but each method has advantages and disadvantages, with its proponents and detractors. This chapter guides the reader through different structures Islamic institutions are using to replicate short-selling, the state of the nascent market for short-sale replication, and the outlook for the future.

Uñchavṛtti (living by gleaning) and āpaddharma (“exigent dharma”) are two important constructs that eventually made their way into the ancient Brahminic Religious Law (dharmaśāstra) that bespeak some of the economic, social, and political stress some brahmins experienced or perceived in ancient India in the couple centuries either side of the turn into the Common Era. The  brahmin head of household who lived on grain left in fields after the harvest (the uñchavṛttin) was a particularly important culture-hero among brahmins, because he refused to earn his living from non-brahmin occupations. If he was unable to secure enough appropriately pure clients for his ritual and teaching functions or his 'sin'-removing function of receiving donations, he chose to eke out a living by gleaning, rather than become a king's minister, a merchant, a soldier, or take up any other allowable non-brahmin occupation. That this decision could lead to actual death by starvation is implied in some of the uñchavṛtti narratives of the Mahābhārata, several of which are presented and discussed in this paper after a general discussion of the overall dharmaśāstra context. The stories on uñchavṛtti also stand in tension with the ethics of liberation oneself through yoga and controversies regarding wealth and poverty.

What I have written about the āpaddharma appeared in the introduction to my translation of the Śāntiparvan (The Mahabharata: Book 11: The Book of the Women, Book 12: The Book of Peace, Part One. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004): 152-64. Another, more broadly contextualized discussion of āpaddharma will appear in my forthcoming paper, “Why So Many ‘Other’ Voices in the ‘Brahmin’ Mahābhārata?” which will appear in the volume to be published from the conference Asia Beyond Boundaries: which was held in Leiden at the end of August, 2018.

En el contexto de la modernización socio-económica, que reclama pacificación,  tanto rural como urbana, e integración armónica de los inmigrantes a la nueva sociedad en formación, se destacan actores laicos que respaldan obras cristianas -instalación del seminario, construcción de iglesias, llegada de congregaciones europeas, fundación de escuelas y asilos- con propósitos evangelizadores ciertamente, asociadas sin embargo a objetivos “meta espirituales”.
La familia Buxareo -llegada desde Canet del Mar (Cataluña) a Montevideo en 1811- y la familia Jackson -procedente de Leek (condado de Stafford, Inglaterra) e instalada en Uruguay desde 1819-, emparentadas entre sí, representan un caso destacado de estas acciones en el Uruguay de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. Ambas familias, de reconocida piedad, fueron motores de la consolidación de la Iglesia católica moderna y de sus instituciones en Uruguay.
“Inversores en lo sagrado”, los Jackson y los Buxareo alcanzaron el control de vastos territorios -en tanto propietarios rurales- o estratégicos -como financiadores de determinadas obras. Analizaremos tres casos: el rol de la iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Lourdes, construida junto al puerto de Montevideo, en la conducción de los inmigrantes para una vida piadosa y para la paz social; el papel del colegio Santa Clara de El Cerro en la formación de las mujeres para la vida familiar y el trabajo manual en un barrio obrero; la función de la Escuela agrícola San José en la educación de trabajadores rurales cristianos, protagonistas de la pacificación del campo.
Compartir la fe cristiana, promover la educación e impulsar la paz política y social, motivaron múltiples acciones conducentes también al crecimiento económico del país y de sus empresarios. Asimismo, la consolidación de sus obras comportaría, desde la perspectiva de la territorialidad, la supervisión de grandes extensiones de tierra y de espacios significativos para el desarrollo social de la ciudad de Montevideo.

Most people today are born, grow, learn, work, and live in a world shaped by consumer culture, and this inevitably affects their search for religious and spiritual meaning in life. With this special issue, the Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion extends an invitation to scholars in the field of marketing, consumer research and related disciplines to contribute to the journal with their best work on the marketing and consumption of spirituality and religion.

Using regional data for about 180 African provinces, we find that measures of Protestant missionary activity in the past are more correlated with schooling variables today than similar measures of Catholic missionary activity, as previous papers have suggested. However, we find that this effect is mainly driven by differences in Catholic areas (i.e., areas in which Catholic missionaries were protected from competition from Protestant missionaries in the past). This is not surprising because most former Catholic colonies had a number of restrictions to the operation of Protestant missionaries that benefited Catholic missionaries. Therefore, our results are consistent with an economic rationale in which different rules created differences in competitive pressures faced by Catholic and Protestant missionaries.

In this paper the author tries to show that the introduction of Roman Catholicism to the Philippines has effected two fundamental influences, viz., Westernization (in terms of Hispanization and later Americanization), which enables the native Filipinos to see and gradually adopt a different culture, and syncretism, where the sacred and the profane are blended, that is to say, the Filipino indigenous rituals and practices are made compatible to Catholicism. The author likewise tries to argue that folk Catholicism is in general the Filipino way of expressing religion as a way of life.


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Modern Muslims are searching for political policies that are based on the Umayyad role model, which was so successful that poverty had been eliminated and not a single individual could be found to accept the zakat ─ the alms. According to Muslim tradition, the Umayyad leaders of the early caliphates were among the families that had originally followed Prophet Muhammad. Hence, the question whether or not and when the Umayyads had indeed converted to Islam seems of paramount importance in modern Muslim socio-economics.

It is assumed that the Umayyads were Muslims and that Islam’s birth-pains were related to Pagan remnants in Mecca. However, the current historicity appears to rest on a whitewashed order of events that is indicative for an eagerness of actors to be connected to and be supporters of Muhammad. This scenario not only defies human nature but also the reality of organized religion.

Unless the suggestions of inadmissible traditions, contemporary external evidence, and the Koran itself are ignored, the first conclusions from this article are that the origin of Islam is by no means Pagan but rests on like Arian Christianity ─ pre-Nicean Christology in its Arian branches merged with an adaptation of Nestorianism and Judeo-Messianism ─ and on professional Judaic insiders rather than on an amateurish chance construct.

It seems that a possible faith orientation of the Umayyads toward Melkite Christianity leans on rather slim evidence, albeit multiple, near contemporary, and also in later inadmissible traditions. However, the here selected lop-sided traditions and external sources seem to be in agreement that the leading members of the clan were unwavering (Melkite) Christians and opponents of the Muhammadean throne and maybe also of the Koran. The outcome remains unchanged even upon eliminating the traditions. On the other hand, a conversion from any preexisting faith to early Islam rests not only on guesswork and exclusively on inadmissible traditions from long after the fact but also on simply ignoring the archaeological and primary evidence.

There is not a dot of historic or archaeological evidence in Syria of the much touted missionary efforts of a new religion from Muhammad almost to the last decade of the seventh century. Instead, the order of events presents a continuum and a deepening of Judaic sectarian conflicts from hundreds of years before.

Cross-national empirical research consistently suggests that, on average, former British colonies are both more democratic and have more stable democratic transitions. I argue that former British colonies are distinct not because Great Britain was a democracy – so were France and Belgium during the late 19th and early 20th century. Nor were the British more altruistic. However, British colonial elites were more divided and thus more constrained. In particular, religious groups were more independent from state control in British colonies than in historically-Catholic colonies (i.e., colonies of France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and Italy). Initially the British restricted missions in their colonies, but Evangelical Protestants forced the British to allow religious liberty in 1813. Protestants were not able to win religious liberty in most other European colonizers during the entire period of colonization.
    Protestant missionaries were central to expanding formal education in the colonies because they wanted people to read the Bible in their own language. Governments wanted a small educated elite that they could control. Other religious groups invested in mass vernacular education primarily when competing with Protestants.
    Missionaries also constrained colonial abuses when they were independent from state control (i.e., chose their own leaders and raised their own funds). If colonial exploitation was extreme, it angered indigenous people against the West and made mission work difficult. Thus missionaries had incentive to fight abuses. Other colonial elites had no incentive to expose their abuses, and indigenous people had little power in the colonizing state. This left missionaries in a unique bridging position. Non-state missionaries also fostered institutions outside state control, institutions that nationalist leaders later used to challenge British colonization and birth political parties.
    Statistical analysis confirms the centrality of missions in expanding education and fostering democracy. Controlling for Protestant missions removes the association between democracy and British colonization, other “Protestant” colonization, percent European, percent Muslim, being an island nation, and being a landlocked nation. Other controls (such as current GDP, and current education enrollments) do not remove the strong positive association between Protestant missions and democracy.

Confucian economic ethics is centred around the relationship between moral rightness and economic and other external benefits. It is a consensus that Confucianism gives priority to rightness over benefits. Scholars disagree on whether this is because Confucianism regards rightness as an intrinsic value independent of, even though not necessarily inconsistent with, benefits or because it sees rightness as the best instrument to produce benefits. The former takes Confucianism as a deontological theory, while the latter a consequentialist or even utilitarian one. In contrast, this chapter argues that it is a virtue ethical theory, concerned with a flourishing human life, consisting of both external and internal well-being. Benefits are indispensable for external well-being, while the virtue of rightness is essential for internal well-being. Although these two aspects, each of which has its own intrinsic value, are mutually instrumental, conflicts between the two may arise, and when they do, Confucianism puts rightness ahead of benefits, as it is what makes human life different from other forms of life.

"Este capitulo ofrece una perspectiva histórica de toda la Iglesia Venezolana, pretendiendo actualizar y destacar los trabajos de CISOR (especificamente los estudios sobre Caracas) en cuanto la organización de las parroquias, los grupos y las actividades parroquiales y, la participación laica en la vidas de la Iglesia local. El catolicismo venezolano, descrito en 1930 como diferente al resto  de  America  Latina  (Watters, 1933), hoy es algo mas que un caso representativo dentro de la región. La Iglesia católica venezolana no tiene mas de treinta años de experiencia operativa denrro de la democracia política como miembro de la sociedad civil. Tiene una larga experiencia con finanzas y personal limitado, y es consciente de las incursiones recientes de competencia religiosa por  parte  de los evangelicos  y otros movimientos  religiosos  de inspiración no-católica."

In recent years, academic interest in the nexus between Pentecostalism, economics, and capitalism has grown significantly. Notably, the vast majority of publications that have addressed this interface are to some degree conceptually framed by Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. In this article I consider what The Protestant Ethic might contribute to our understanding of the relationship between Pentecostalism and capitalism. First, I assess a particularly noteworthy attempt to draw Pentecostalism into Weber's genealogical account which draws a series of parallels between Pentecostalism and ascetic Protestantism. Second, I discuss the merits of an approach that is not primarily genealogical but remains indebted to the concepts that Weber introduces, elaborating a new affinity between Pentecostalism and capitalism in its present iteration. With this article, I seek to comprehensively extend the scope and sharpen the conceptual underpinnings of future analysis and empirical work in this area.

This dissertation presents a full-fledged portrait of the muftiate (spiritual administration of Muslims) in modern Russia. Designed initially for the purpose of controlling religious activity, over time the institution of the muftiate was appropriated by Muslims and became a key factor in preserving national identity for different ethnic groups of Tatars. In modern Russia numerous muftiates play the controversial role of administrative bodies responsible for the enforcement of some aspects of domestic and foreign policy on behalf of the state.

Bekkin’s research focuses on muftiates in the European part of Russia, examining both their historical development and their functioning in the modern context. The analysis draws on academic literature, written and oral texts produced by the ministers of the Islamic religion, and archival sources, as well as numerous interviews with current and former muftis and other Islamic bureaucrats. Following Douglass North’s theory of institutions, the author distinguishes between the muftiate as an institution and the muftiate as a religious organization. In the first case the muftiate encompasses a set of rules (restrictions) that are both formal (reflected in the laws, charters of spiritual administrations of Muslims) and informal (not reflected in the legislation). Individual Islamic religious organizations (muftiates in a narrow sense) function according to these rules. By analyzing both the formal and informal precepts which regulate the status and the activity of spiritual administrations of Muslims in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and continue to do so in modern Russia, the author makes an attempt to explain the viability of the institution of the muftiate.

Basing himself in the theory of the economics of religion, the author treats Russian muftiates as firms competing in the Islamic segment of the religious market. He applies economic principles in analyzing how the muftiates interact with each other, with other religious organizations in Russia, and with the Russian state. The author provides his own classification of muftiates in Russia, depending on the role they play in the religious market.

The negative outcomes of industrial capitalism and neoliberalism continue to grow in the twenty-first century, causing many social scientists to look for solutions and alternatives to the status quo. Major ideologies gravitate towards collectivization and statism on the one hand, and anarcho-capitalism and the "commodification of everything" on the other. There is, however, a growing movement towards decentralization by democratization. This article examines worker's cooperatives and the framework behind the cooperative movement (distributism and anarcho-socialism) as a robust solution to the central problems of our economy. Worker's cooperatives, while still not common in many industries, are both theoretically sound and have been concretely tested.

In the context of the rise of reactionary politics across the globe, this book seeks new ways of developing solidarity across religious, political and economic differences. Drawing on an increasingly influential Christian theological movement,　postliberalism, it claims that the dominance of liberal, secular rationality has blinded people to the fundamental role of transcendence and myth in developing solidarity. The result is either atrophy, or a retrenching in divisive myths of faith, race, nation or economic status.

Liberalism is now a dominant force across the globe. But its resonance in the Anglo-Saxon West, from which it originates and has been most fully realized, is relatively underexplored. The book thus follows two simultaneous lines of enquiry. Firstly, a genealogical study of social scientific and policy iterations of the relationship between belief and solidarity in the Anglo-Saxon West, placing postliberal theory into dialogue with the sociology and anthropology of religion, politics and economics. Secondly, it draws from original ethnographic research with groups in London, UK, that seek to develop solidarity in the face of deep-seated difference.

By bringing a new way of framing these contentious debates about contemporary society, this research offers tools for more productive conversations around religious and political topics, in particular concluding with a clear policy proposal. It is, therefore, a useful resource for both academics of　theology and　religious　studies,　political philosophy, sociology and anthropology; and for politicians, policy makers and practitioners hoping to develop solidarity in the modern world.

A new gold mine has been discovered. The next challenge, with the increase of global trade in the upcoming AEC, is for Indonesian halal certification to go in harmony with regional, if not global, standards. Nevertheless, apart from certifying the reliability of Islamic procedure-based products, halal certification is much more about the responsibility to protect the interest of both the industry and consumers. For Muslims, halal certification in the global market will lead to religious and social transformation in the future.

Religion and Theological thought are increasingly associated with anti-scientific, anti-emancipatory, unjust attitudes and actions. Yet such blanket condemnations fail to understand that the virulent edge of radicalized religion is not its full spectrum. The fostering of values of care and compassion, of altruism for kin and community, careful conservation of wild and cultivated spaces are normative aims in many religious traditions. These aims continue to move individuals to transcend narrow self-interest and to see themselves as beings in a relational world. Whether such embedded resources translate into ecologically-conscious action is dependent on theo-ethical interpretation. Across traditions, we see the ever widening development of ecological theology and theo-ethics of the Earth. These new visions re-enchant and re-story that cosmos and the human place in the planetary order.
New paradigms for ethical and existential aims that can inspire the will and enhance the imagination must emerge. Without transformed vision that compels consistent alterations in human values and behaviors, new information on the threats posed by Climate Change, or evidence of the dangerous biogeophysical disruptions caused by wholesale unrestricted resource extraction will remain unacknowledged. Planetary survival is now predicated upon the alignment of our notions of both human & ecological rights with our highest principles. As such, ways of knowing that are embedded in religion, philosophy, theo-ethics, spiritual ethics, moral traditions, and a culture that values the commons as an essential resource for the transformation necessary for environmental regeneration and renewal. Sustainable Nature Requires Sustainable Societies.

This dissertation analyses the industrial transformation of Turkey by focusing on the history of Kayseri’s small town Hacılar which has been showed an extraordinary performance in industry and economic development in the last 40 years. However, it is not a general history of industrialization; but a local development story from a traditional rural/ village community to an industrial production zone in relation with the local, national and universal dynamics. In line with the historical materialist conceptual and epistemological frame and  against the “Calvinist Islam” kind theological arguments, this study explains the historical, regional, geographical, economic, social, and cultural reasons and factors of the industrial development of Hacılar in the context of the general industrial history of Turkey.               

Keywords: Turkey, Anatolian Tigers, Islamic Capital, Islamic Calvinism, Kayseri, Hacılar.

Od sredine sedamdesetih godina 20. veka, jedna religijska pojava (New Age duhovnost) i jedna politička pojava (neoliberalizam), doživele su istovremen uspon. Oba fenomena su duboko obeležila savremenu kulturu. Izronivši iz kontrakulture šezdesetih godina, ali sa korenima u mnogo dužim genealogijama zapadnog ezoterizma, New Age duhovnost je već tokom osamdesetih godina prerasla u teško pregledno „spiritualno tržište“. Upletena u različite prakse potrošnje ili ideološke narative, New Age duhovnost je obrađivana od strane broja različitih radova iz ugla njenih veza sa savremenim post-fordističkim ili neoliberalizovanim kapitalizmom, ili njegovim „Novim duhom“. Istraživanja su, mahom, problemu prilazila iz ugla „individualizacije“ religije i njenog pretvaranja u „spiritualnu robu“. U takvom rakursu, New Age je označilac koji se odnosi na svojevrsne prakse duhovne kombinatorike na slobodnom tržištu, u kojima individue, po nahođenju, biraju eklektične sadržaje i prilagođavaju ih potrebama svog sopstva. Ova disertacija, međutim, nastoji da predloži drugačiji program, koji bi New Age duhovnost i neoliberalizam razumeo kao dva vrlo kompleksna „misaona kolektiva“ sa podjednako kompleksnim pogledima na svet. Polazeći od te pretpostavke ona razvija pogled na istorijski „brak“ neoliberalizma i New Age duhovnosti, do koga je došlo već tokom osamdesetih, pitajući se o njegovim istorijskim preduslovima, i o njegovoj ideološkoj ulozi u uspostavljanju politiko-teološke logike Novog duha kapitalizma, tj. današnje hegemone kulture. New Age narativi i neoliberalizam ne samo da su doživeli paralelan uspon, već imaju i istu kulturnu predistoriju, budući da su istovremeno rođeni u međuratno vreme. Oni su stoga obeleženi i sličnim društveno-političkim problemima, i povezani sa sličnim kulturnim tokovima. Zato im je moguće prići iz ugla pojma „elektivnog afiniteta“, koji je uveo Maks Veber a razradio Majkl Levi. Taj koncept postulira mogućnost „uzajamnog privlačenja“ između različitih pojava, koje poseduju sličnosti u strukturi. Te „sličnosti u strukturi“ tj. homologije se, pod odgovarajućima društvenim okolnostima, mogu „aktivirati“ stvarajući uzajamnu atrakciju, pojačanje, čak i mešanje dva ili više fenomena, iz čega može nastati i „nova figura“. Procesi elektivnog afiniteta između neoliberalizma i New Age religije nisu proizveli ravnopravan brak već odnos podređenosti u kome neoliberalizam crpe svoju moć iz bogatstva kulturnih predstava koje je New Age pokret razvijao. Tom politiko-teološkom problemu je potrebno prići iz ugla kritike ideologije (a što ova disertacija i čini, putem teorija Rolana Barta i Frederika Džejmsona), dok politiko-teološko poređenje ovih pojava može reći mnogo toga novog ne samo o ideološkim ulogama New Age narativa u regeneraciji kulturne hegemonije, nakon privremenog poraza progresivnih snaga i prelaska na novi režim akumulacije kapitala s kraja sedamdesetih već i o još uvek zanemarenom problemu politiko-teološke „anatomije“ neoliberalizma, pokazujući, između ostalog, da su neoliberali razvijali svoje oblike spiritualnosti i „kontrakulture“. Malobrojni autori i autorke koji su neoliberalizmu prišli iz politiko-teološkog ugla, poput npr. Adama Kotska, Đorđa Agambena, Dotana Lešema, to su činili (uz izvestan izuzetak Džošue Rejmija) na bazi hrišćanske teologije, a često uz neadekvatan uvid u ideje stvarnih neoliberala. Do toga je došlo zbog akademskog zakašnjenja (jednako ogromnog) u razumevanju istorije i ideacione prirode zapadnog ezoterizma, i neoliberalizma. Nadovezujući se na nove istoriografske razvitke u te dve međusobno veoma udaljene oblasti, ova disertacija teži da ispita koordinate mogućeg novog politiko-teološkog programa, koji bi ih povezao. Ona to čini kroz diskusiju implicitnih ili aktivnih afiniteta koji postoje između neoliberalizma i New Age duhovnosti, koje razume kao dve srodne kritike kulture. Ove kritike kulture su razvile sličan pogled na niz problema, poput ograničenosti ljudske racionalnosti, potrebe za začaravanjem društva ili približavanjem nauke i religije, te srodne oblike anti-kartezijanstva i holizma/emergentizma. Te srodnosti, neoliberalizam i New Age duguju „posrednicima“, zajedničkim problemima (na koje su predlagali homologne odgovore) pa i nekim zajedničkim izvorima – od društveno-materijalne dinamike samog kapitalizma, pa do konkretnih istorijskih fenomena poput kibernetike, ili pak filozofije života (vitalizma). Na bazi ovih srodnosti, New Age i neoliberalizam „slili“ su se u ideološke predstave o rađanju „novog društva“ zasnovane na kibernetičkoj/retikularnoj/informacionoj/mrežnoj paradigmi, u srcu „Novog duha kapitalizma“, kako taj pojam razumeju Lik Boltanski i Ev Šijapelo. Predstave o evoluciji ljudske svesti, na pragu epohalne promene, kao svoj stvarni sadržaj imale su političku dekompoziciju fordističke radničke klase, ali i uspon novog neoliberalizovanog meta-političkog konsenzusa. U tom pogledu, otvaranje zanemarenog problema „javnog značaja“ New Age duhovnosti, koje bi prevazišlo često svođenje njene veze s neoliberalizmom na pitanje individualizma tj. konzumerizma moguće je samo na bazi objašnjenja uloge ovog zamršenog spleta ideoloških narativa u tom epohalnom preokretu. U želji da iz politiko-teološkog ugla da doprinos otvaranju tog problema ovaj rad se pridružuje „trećem talasu“ New Age studija koji New Age religiju, umesto kao trivijalan fenomen, razume kao pojavu koja zavređuje mesto u centru savremenih rasprava o religiji, kulturi i politici.

This study aimed to analyze relation among religion and economy in developing work ethic. the original thesis concerning relation of religion and work ethic initiated by Max Weber in his study entitled Protestant Ethic and Spirit Capitalism. In Weberian perspective, religion take important role that developing values of work ethics e.g. rationalism, asceticism, and “calling” are encouraging human to work hard in the world. This study aimed to elaborating Weber’s thesis within comparing work ethic in others religion. Library research used as research methodology in this research. The result showed, basically, work ethic invented in many religion ; nevertheless, adapted to the context of socio-cultural in society.

Since the rise of the religious right, scholars have become increasingly interested in studying conservative Protestantism. Not only do conservative Protestants (CPs) make up at least a quarter of the US population; they differ from many Americans in gender-role attitudes, childrearing styles, political orientation, and other ways as well. In fact, religious factors often predict people’s political views better than do either class or gender, even though the latter two have received far more attention in the scholarly literature (Manza & Brooks 1997, Kellstedt et al 1996b). Unfortunately research in this area has been hampered by imprecise measurement and poor understanding of the various movements grouped together as CPs. This has muddied statistical results, stifled theoretical development, and blinded researchers to promising areas of analysis. Thus, in this chapter we first discuss the history and distinctive qualities of the various CP movements, then we use these insights to propose better survey measures, and finally we apply this knowledge to several substantive areas (i.e., gender-role attitudes, childrearing styles, tolerance, the .culture wars,. the religious right, and the reasons for the religious vitality of CP groups).

Literature on megachurches (Protestant churches with attendance over 2000) concentrates on numbers at the expense of an associated, but more instructive, characteristic: an overriding commitment to growth. Churches of any size can adopt a growth-oriented theology, style and organisational structure. In such churches, the growth imperative is likely to apply not only to congregational membership but also to church buildings and collection receipts; to the television ministry and other forms of outreach; to the pastor’s book and CD sales; and to individual members’ businesses, incomes, houses and possessions. In each dimension of religious life, at both individual and corporate level, the gospel of growth demarcates a novel Christian form, attuned to the ethos of late capitalism.

Le mont Athos est souvent présenté comme un espace coupé du temps et du monde « profane », où des hommes, organisés en autarcie, se consacrent à Dieu. Les archives publiées des monastères athonites tendent à nuancer cette image, soulignant au contraire les liens spirituels, sociaux mais aussi économiques maintenus par les monastères au-delà de la Sainte Montagne depuis le XI e siècle. Dans cette contribution, nous cherchons à mieux cerner l'organisation spatiale et économique de ces monastères à l'époque moderne. Pour examiner cette question, nous nous appuyons sur le fonds d'archives roumaines du monastère d'Iviron, documents couvrant la période post-byzantine (XV e-début du XX e siècles) publiés par des chercheurs roumains associés au Fonds de la recherche scientifique grecque. À travers ces documents et en mettant l'accent sur les liens économiques entre le monastère-mère et certaines de ses metochia (dépendances), nous nous interrogeons d'abord sur les articulations entre économie matérielle et économie symbolique et leurs possibles implications en termes d'accumulation de richesses. Nous nous intéressons ensuite aux acteurs et aux fondements d'une économie monastique structurée en réseaux transterritoriaux, pour nous demander, finalement, si la règle idiorythmique, adoptée à Iviron à l'époque ottomane, a pu accompagner des logiques évolutives : économie de subsistance, économie de rente, système de marché.

Although often ignored, religion has profoundly shaped political and economic conditions around the world. This claim is suggested by three historical divergences: (1) a divergence between Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim regions of Europe (these differences emerged after the Reformation and began to dissipate only after World War II) (Young 2009); (2) a divergence between Protestant and Catholic settler colonies in Oceania and the Americas; and (3) a divergence between the impacts of Protestant and Catholic missionaries on societies throughout the global South prior to Vatican II (which ended in 1965). Discussions of the influence of religion in Europe have been stymied because it is difficult to disentangle religious and nonreligious causes. in this chapter I argue that both in Europe and in the global South, thus I use the Protestant and Catholic missionary movement as a quasi-natural experiment.
      I argue that both in Europe and in the global South, Protestants shaped human capital development (mass education and mass printing) and institutional development (civil society, colonial rule of law, and market economics)—especially prior to the 1960s. Together these shaped elites’ incentives and thus long-term prospects for economic development and political democracy. Other groups have copied many Protestant patterns (e.g., the Catholic Church in Vatican II [1965]), and thus differences are dissipating, but the historic pattern is clear.

В настоящем учебном пособии на основе большого количества фактологического материала рассматривается широкий спектр вопросов социально-экономического, политического и культурного развития исламского мира на современном этапе. Показана многовекторность развития исламских государств, неоднозначность влияния исламского фактора на различные аспекты общественно-политической жизнедеятельности общества, региональные отношения и мировую политику, рассмотрены фундаментальные вопросы, связанные с процессами глобализации и демократизации исламского мира. Для студентов МГИМО, обучающихся по специальности и направлениям «Зарубежное регионоведение», «Востоковедение», «Международные отношения», «Политология», а также для всех интересующихся современными тенденциями развития мусульманских обществ и исламской религии.

This article discusses the Tibetan term dkor, a concept that appears to have become increasingly complex as it developed over the last millennium up until this day. The most basic connotation of the word dkor is "wealth" or "possession", something rather concrete indeed. In contradistinction with what is often called the "commodification of religion", that is to say, "the process of transforming goods, services, ideas, and [...] religion into something that can be bought and sold", 1 I argue in this article that, as time passed, a gradual shift from the material to the immaterial has taken place. In other words, a shift from something that can be bought and sold to something that is intangible yet is thought to have an (invisible) effect on this life and the next.

The expansion of Pentecostalism and the process of economic growth in contemporary Ethiopia suggest revisiting the supposed “elective affinity” that Pentecostalism shares with neoliberal globalisation and the “spirit of development.” While the expansion of Pentecostalism in Africa has been traditionally associated with neoliberalism and a state in retreat, in Ethiopia Pentecostals are prospering in a context marked by the presence of a state that is strongly developmental. Pentecostals hold a controversial relationship with the strategy of this developmental state and their holistic approach challenges the government secular policy.

Key words: Ethiopia, Pentecostalism, developmental state, economic growth, holistic approach.