The Divine Economy

This paper summarises the main arguments of Seabright [2024. The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power and People. Princeton: Princeton University Press]. In this paper, I seek to not just to explain how religion has developed through prehistory and through history, but also to help understand the remarkable vigour of religion in the world today despite the predictions of many that secularisation would make religion wither and disappear in the 21st century.