Sacred Companies Organizational Aspects of Religion and Religious Aspects of Organizations

The result of a three-year research project at Yale sponsored by the Lilly Endowment, the volume looks at such topics as the historical sources and patterns of U.S. religious institutions, contemporary patterns of denominational authority, the congregation as organization, and the interface between religious and secular institutions.Religion is intrinsically social, and hence irretrievably organizational, although organization is often seen as the darker side of the religious experience--power, routinization, and bureaucracy. Religion and secular organizations have long received separate scholarly scrutiny, but until now their confluence has been little considered. This interdisciplinary collection of mostly unpublished papers is the first volume to remedy the deficit. The project grew out of a three-year inquiry into religious institutions undertaken by Yale University's Program on Non-Profit Organizations and sponsored by the Lilly Endowment. The scholars who took part in this effort weree challenged to apply new perspectives to the study of religious organizations, especially that strand of contemporary secular organizational theory known as "New Institutionalism." The result was this groundbreaking volume, which includes papers on various aspects of such topics as the historical sources and patterns of U.S. religious organizations, contemporary patterns of denominational authority, the congregation as an organization, and the interface between religious and secular institutions and movements. The contributors include an interdisciplinary mix of scholars from economics, history, law, social administration, and sociology."The book is filled with rich material."--Church History "An excellent book; highly recommended."--ChoiceThis interdisciplinary collection is the first book to address the organizational aspects of religion. Topics include the historical sources and patterns of US religious institutions, contemporary patterns of denominational authority, and the interface between religious and secular institutions.