Abordari economice asupra comportamentului religios

Abstract

Religion and religious conduct have been studied from different perspectives, of which, the economic approach will be subject to this article. The paper will present some applications of the economic model in the study of religious belief and institutions: religion as informational shortcut, religious household production, religious human capital, Churches as clubs, Churches as firms, religious markets. Against this background, there will be presented some limits of the economic modeling of religion: the weakness of the maximizing assumption in explaining religious phenomena or behavior and religious behavior as choice under uncertainty. The article suggests, as a response to the problem of religious uncertainty, to focus on the institution of sanctity.