Praying for a Recession: The Business Cycle and Protestant Church Growth [Beckworth]
David Beckworth
Texas State University
A widely-held view is that economic distress increases religiosity and vice versa. This understanding implies there should be an inverse relationship between the business cycle and religiosity. This possibility is empirically explored in this paper by examining the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and Protestant church growth in the United States. The findings of this paper suggest there is a countercyclical component to church growth for Protestant denominations, particularly for evangelical Protestants.
File: praying_for_a_recession1.pdf [376.04KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *beckworth, @asrec'07, business cycle, church attendance, growth, recession, religiosity
Religion, Exchange, Coexistence and Growth [Ergener]
Resit Ergener
Bogazici University
This paper is an attempt to establish a general framework on the relationship between religion and exchange, other factors being constant. Only a few historical examples are referred to and the argument is presented mainly in a theoretical framework. Religion can be used as a tool to establish networks of trust to facilitate reciprocal exchange, to justify exploitation and to encourage charity. It would be wrong to identify religion with only one of these influences on exchange. Policies adopted by a faith toward coexistence with other faiths and the path to economic development taken by a community made up by the believers of a religion, will be affected by how religion is employed with regard to exchange relations and by the nature of the relations a religious community has with other communities (war or trade).
File: RESIT ERGENER 2007.pdf [39.61KB]
Published 11/02/2007
Filed under: (2007), *ergener, @asrec'07, exchange, growth
Why the Jehovah's Witnesses Grow so Rapidly: A Theoretical Application [Stark,Iannacone]
Rodney Stark; Laurence R. Iannaccone
Journal of Contemporary Religion, 1997
Abstract: This paper applies a general theory of why religious movements succeed or fail to explain why the Jehovah’s Witnesses are the most rapidly growing religious movement in the western world. In addition to qualitative assessments of Witness doctrines, organizational structures, internal networks, and socialization, we utilize quantitative data from a variety of sources to assess such things as the impact of failed prophesies, how “strictness” eliminates free-riders and strengthens congregations, the demographic make-up of the Witness “labor force”, and the effects of continuity with local religious cultures on success.
File: Iannaccone - JW Growth1.pdf [509.98KB]
Published 05/01/1997
Filed under: (1997), *iannaccone, *stark, cult, growth, jehovah's witnesses, sect, strictness