O Come All Ye Faithful

A friend just e-mailed me this article in the Economist magazine giving an excellent overview of many of the key insights from the economics of religion.

Here are some highlights:

MENTION a “megachurch” and most people think of a gleaming building in the American suburbs. In fact, many of the biggest churches are outside the United States. In Guatemala, Pentecostals have built what may be the largest building in Central America: Mega Frater (Big Brother) packs a 12,000-seater church, a vast baptism pool and a heliport. One church in Lagos can supposedly bring 2m people out onto the streets. But five of the world's ten biggest megachurches are in just one country: South Korea.

South Korea illustrates three features of modern religion: competition, heat and choice.

Has the same competitive spirit gripped other religions? Buddhism, the religion whose market share has dipped most over the past century, remains pretty passive: its adherents believe that people should discover faith for themselves rather than be energetically introduced to it.

Hinduism tends to be more turf-conscious. Some states in India have passed “anti-conversion” laws banning evangelists from using force or “allurement”—code for Christians and Muslims converting Hindu untouchables, who tend to get a raw deal under the caste system.

This spirit of competition also helps to explain some of Islam's success. That may sound odd. Saudi Arabia enforces religious orthodoxy with police and prisons. Under many sharia systems, apostasy is still punishable by death. And in many Islamic countries mosques get far more financial help and direction from the state than Adam Smith would have approved of. But in fact there is more competition within Islam than at first appears.

Like Pentecostalism, Islam is a religion without much hierarchy: most mosques claim to be following the teachings of one preacher or another, but their real authority comes from the Koran. This helps new imams to set up shop and allows them to do pretty much what they like. But marketing has not been neglected.

Islam is not as evangelical as Christianity. Its followers are less intent on spreading the good news; much of their attention is focused on stiffening the resolve of communities that are already Muslim. But Islam is expansionist in some areas, including sub-Saharan Africa and the fringes of China. In Xinjiang province, the state government has got so worried about Muslim separatism that it has cracked down on Islam. China may yet end up being both the world's largest Christian country and its largest Muslim one.

If this does happen in China, what will that mean politically, socially, and economically? Intriguiing questions, particularly if China's government remains anti-religious.

Read the whole article and check out these others in the Economist's special report:

• In God's name
• O come all ye faithful
• The power of private prayer
• The new wars of religion
• Holy depressing
• Bridging the divide
• Back to the Ottomans
• Stop in the name...
• The lesson from America
• Audio interview
• Sources and acknowledgments

Also see my other posts on the economics of religion.