... in countries such as Sweden, Norway and Estonia. A recent report on church attendance in the UK by the development NGO Tearfund (2007) suggests that only 15 per cent of the population attend church services at least monthly. Moreover, church attendance appears to be more prevalent amongst older people...

...Deborah M. Figart Faith‐based activism in living wage campaigns is on the rise. Summarizes recent campaigns to enact living wage ordinances in US municipalities, underscoring the role of community‐church partnerships such as Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, National Interfaith...

...Andy Thorpe; Elizabeth Bennett This paper traces the evolution of (Catholic) church‐state relations from Nicaraguan independence through to 1998, showing how a symbiotic relationship has emerged whereby one makes recourse to the other in order to justify its existence and provide it with moral...

...Anthony J. Gill From the vantage point of the 1970s and early 1980s, the Latin American Catholic Church appeared to be on a trajectory of increasing progressivism, typically manifesting itself as a “preferential option for the poor”. Recently, however, the Catholic hierarchy has experienced...

...Marie Finnegan Aims to provide a comparative analytical critique of the moral underpinnings of the neo‐classical tradition. The “moral gauge” employed for this purpose is that of the overtly ethical socio‐economic doctrine of the Catholic Church, as delineated in the major papal encyclicals...

...Ian Smith Examines the dramatic post‐war slide of church membership in Scotland from a socio‐economic perspective. Analysis of membership inflows and outflows reveals that the decline in the stock of church members is accounted for in terms of the ebbing of the former. Describes and tests eclectic...

... countries should extend to LDCs, disclaiming technical recommendations as the Church′s role, and calling upon industrialised countries to draw up fresh plans for co‐ordinated assistance for LDCs, while stressing that the latter should put their houses in order. A Christian Commentary on LDC Debt A Christian...

...Joe L. Wallis Contrasting approaches to the economic modelling of churches are examined. The proposal that churches should be modelled as collective action groups, rather than wealth maximising firms is expounded, with particular focus on the way the two approaches treat church products,finances...

...Andy Thorpe In considering the historic writings of Marx, the article seeks to show that as religion has become institutionalised in the form of the Catholic Church it becomes simply another component of the edifice of the superstructure. This position is challenged chiefly through the emergence...

...Brooks B. Hull; Frederick Bold The theory of the firm is employed to explain behaviour of the church. Churches produce a set of products including entertainment, a variety of socially valuable public goods, eternal life and alteration of otherwise fated events. Most importantly, it reduces...