Bookmarks (19) clear filters

Tony O’Connor requests I cover this: A few times you have said that the important thinkers of the future will be the religious ones. It would be interesting to hear more about what led you to this conclusion. Concretely, I wonder if this would arise because religious populations within liberal polities are expanding over time […] The post Why will the important thinkers of...

Here is the audio, transcript, and visual. Here is part of the CWT summary: Benjamin Friedman has been a leading macroeconomist since the 1970s, whose accomplishments include writing 150 papers, producing more than dozen books, and teaching Tyler Cowen graduate macroeconomics at Harvard in 1985. In his latest book, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, Ben argues that […] The post My Conversation with Benjamin Friedman appeared...

The spiritual gap between Iran’s Shia ayatollahs and the people they rule is widening. The strictures of the theocracy and the doctrine of Shia supremacy alienate many. So growing numbers of Iranians seem to be leaving religion or experimenting with alternatives to Shiism. Christians, Zoroastrians and Bahais all report soaring interest. Leaders of other forms […] The post Are disenchanted Iranians turning to other...

That is a new paper by Kevin D. Hoover and Andrej Svorenčík: The leadership structure of the American Economics Association is documented using a biographical database covering every officer and losing candidate for AEA offices from 1950 to 2019. The analysis focuses on institutional affiliations by education and employment. The structure is strongly hierarchical. A […] The post Who Runs the AEA? appeared first...

The Supreme Court has sided with religious institutions (NYT) against some of the pandemic restrictions of state and local governments: The opinion said the state had treated secular businesses more favorably than houses of worship. “The list of ‘essential’ businesses includes things such as acupuncture facilities, camp grounds, garages, as well as many whose services […] The post SCOTUS, houses of worship, and the...

As noted, Ben has a new and very interesting book coming out Religion and the Rise of Capitalism.  He is also the author of the superb The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, and the earlier Day of Reckoning, about the economic policies of the Reagan administration.  Ben has been a leading macroeconomist since the 1970s, […] The post What should I ask Benjamin M....

That is a work in progress by Brian Wheaton, job market candidate from Harvard University.  Here is the abstract: Over the past several decades, working-class America has been plagued by multiple adverse trends: a sharp increase in social isolation, an even sharper increase in single parenthood, a decline in male labor force participation rates, and […] The post Secularization and the Tribulations of the...

Evan Sharp, the co-founder of Pinterest, hired Sacred Design Lab to categorize all major religious practices and think of ways to apply them to the office. They made him a spreadsheet. “We pulled together hundreds of practices from all these different religions and cultural practices and put them in a spreadsheet and just tried to […] The post Bringing religion back into business appeared...

Daniel Klein sets the record straight: Olsson: But was it Christianity in particular, or monotheism more generally, that opened up the road to liberalism? Don’t other religious traditions and civilizations also have ideas on individuals, moral agency, and the conscience? Klein: Monotheism is necessary but not sufficient. Other monotheistic religions didn’t have moral agency, moral […] The post From Christianity to liberalism appeared first...

Having not visited the New Jersey shore since I was a kid (and then a very regular visitor), I realized you cannot actually swim there with any great facility.  Nor is there much to do, nor should one look forward to the food. Nonetheless Ocean Grove is one of America’s finest collections of Victorian homes, […] The post Ocean Grove, New Jersey travel notes...

From Gharad Bryan, James J. Choi, and Dean Karlan: We study the causal impact of religiosity through a randomized evaluation of an evangelical Protestant Christian values and theology education program delivered to thousands of ultra-poor Filipino households. Six months after the program ended, treated households have higher religiosity and income; no statistically significant differences in […] The post The impact of Protestant Evangelism on...

That is a recent book by Ahmet T. Kuru, published in August.  All books should have a (non-Amazon) abstract, and here it is for this book: Why do Muslim-majority countries exhibit high levels of authoritarianism and low levels of socioeconomic development in comparison to world averages? Ahmet T. Kuru criticizes explanations which point to Islam […] The post *Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment* appeared first...

This 19th century French sociologist is worth reading, as he is somehow the way station between Pascal and Rene Girard, with an influence on Bruno Latour as well.  Tarde focuses on how copying helps to explain social order and also how it drives innovation.  For Tarde, copying, innovation, and ethos are all part of an […] The post Gabriel Tarde’s *On Communication and Social...

Ian Bremmer offers one account of all the wrongdoing, which I will not summarize here.  In any case, many of you have asked me what I think of these recent events. I do not at all favor replacing India’s secular democracy with “Hindu nation” as a ruling principle.  For one thing, I believe in strong […] The post What to think about Modi these...

A growing body of research suggests that populations around the globe vary substantially along several important psychological dimensions and that populations characterized as Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) are particularly unusual. People from these societies tend to be more individualistic, independent, and impersonally prosocial (e.g., trusting of strangers) while revealing less conformity and […] The post Did the medieval church make us...

That is the highly controversial book by Frederick Martel, subtitled Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy.  For some time I had been resisting reading the book, as usually I find tales of corruption and scandal boring.  But I misunderstood the fundamental nature of the account.  It is not quite a homage, but Martel seems to admire the evolved […] The post *In the Closet of the Vatican*...

A few of you have asked me what I think of this movement, surveyed here (possibly gated for you), or try this coverage.  If you would like the whole thing in one tweet, maybe try this one from Sohrab Ahmari: What I’d say to liberal friends who are men and women of goodwill: “Persuade your […] The post The new Catholic illiberals appeared first...

Political parties sponsor weddings for young members to reinforce their loyalty, and gratitude. Religious and ethnic minorities — which means everyone in splintered Lebanon — consider marriage and procreation essential to their long-term survival. And armed groups encourage their fighters to marry so that their children can become the fighters of the future. A few […] The post Lebanese/Gaza marriage markets in everything appeared...