Faithonomics : religion and the free market Torkel Brekke.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-284) and index.

Introduction: An economic take on religion -- Part 1. The market for religion. Should priests be bribed into laziness? -- Beer, haircuts and religious services -- Priests and fighter pilots -- Faith as social glue: the history of a bad idea -- Part 2. History--religious markets in other times and places. Religious markets in Islam -- Religious markets in Hinduism -- Religious markets in Buddhism -- Religious markets in medieval Catholicism -- Part 3. The present--seven sins of government intervention. Crowding out: when government kills initiative -- Rent-seeking: religions jockeying for privilege -- Monopoly: Nordic state churches and communist repression -- Discrimination: women, gay people and God -- Persecution: states, religions and violence -- Reification: how states fix religions in space and time -- Imitation: why do atheists and Buddhists behave like Christians?

"Does anyone have a monopoly on God? Can religion be bought or sold? Why do we pay priests? How do we limit religious conflicts? And should states get involved in matters of faith? "Faithonomics" shows that religion should be analyzed as a market similar to those for other goods and services, like bottled water or haircuts. It is about religion today, but Brekke shows us that there have always been religious markets, all over the world, regulated to a greater or lesser degree. He argues that state "control" over religious markets is often the cause of unforeseen and negative consequences. Many of today's problems like religious terrorism or rent-seeking by religious political parties, are easier to understand if we think like economists. Religious markets work best when they are relatively free, and religious organizations should be left to sell their products without unnecessary restrictions. We have no good reason to grant any one of them special privileges, political or financial."--book jacket front flap.