The Role of Religion in Economy: A Theoretical Analysis

The analysis of the role of religion in welfare, often directs our attention to the study of the relationship between religion and economy, and its various aspects in particular. Sociologists, seeking for more complete analysis, often refer to the models of economic theory and applied economics incorporating the element of religion in their analyzes. However, insufficient understanding of the nature and structure of theoretical economic models, frequently leads to the development of an approach that omits or misrepresents many important elements, such as the nature of human action, the implications of the religious adherence for the action, etc. . In our work we present some results of our research on the relationship between economics and religion in the context of models of Economics of Religion, and their weaknesses. Based on this study, we can observe the major flaws of the adoption of some theoretical models of religion, mainly due to the differences and reductionism in the anthropological assumptions which support, necessarily, all these models. Hence an sociological study, which adopts, implicitly or explicitly some anthropology, will be conditioned by the statements adopted by other science theorist. This paper, in addition to identifying the elements that need to be taken into account in the study of the relationship between the economy and religion, seeks to define the theoretical elements of the underlying anthropologies concerning the economic and sociological models to provide a framework necessary for the scientific analysis of the role of religion in the welfare of the people.