Paul Seabright adds his perspective to those of the numerous economic historians who, especially in recent years, have probed the intersection between business and religion. Seabright differentiates his work from other scholars, ranging from Adam Smith to more contemporary rational choice theorists, by structuring his discussion around the concept of the platform. In the author’s view, religious platforms constitute interlocking webs of cooperative exchange, bringing together groups of users in a community of believers who find new self-perceptions and an enhanced sense of belonging in these organizations. They offer specific social services that individuals crave, rituals that give insiders performance spaces, allowing them to create and consolidate their identities, as well as the chance to engage in meaningful dialogue with the supernatural. Such platforms provide individuals with mutually beneficial relationships that adherents could not find in any other institution. Seabright believes that platforms account for the historical persistence of transcendental religions, despite the challenges posed by scientific inquiry and other secularizing forces. As such, they offer structural, organizational, and systematic lessons for corporate and political institutions. They foreshadowed the rise of such digital platforms as Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram by facilitating loyalty and social relationships that could never form without their existence. They make their customers integral to their structure and appeal. Every religious platform “user” becomes a key element in enhancing its institutional appeal for others.

The Divine Economy works best when Seabright embeds his discussion in an intensely local context. He starts off by introducing readers to a Ghanian woman who lives in the slums of Accra and earns roughly $1.50 per day by selling ice water stored in a basket above her head to motorists on congested and polluted streets surrounding the capital city. Seabright seeks to understand why she devotes extraordinary time, energy, and finances to support a church headed by a Mercedes-driving minister who preaches the prosperity gospel. The author’s answer revolves around the notion that religious institutions offer platforms that provide tangible benefits, services, and psychological rewards for communicants. They constitute welcoming communal spaces that allow members to find new like-minded friends and partners. Church members receive respect and esteem from their brothers and sisters, gain an opportunity to mentor and help others, and embed themselves in institutions that provide structure and coherence in a seemingly chaotic and random world. Specific beliefs and theological messages appear less important than the broader platform-based services that religious institutions provide. Echoing Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, Seabright places great stock in the notion that religious organizations function best when they vie for members in a heterogenous spiritual marketplace. Competition fosters energy, dynamism, creativity, and innovation in religion no less than in firms and businesses. Privilege and monopoly make platforms less attractive. Political patronage and sanction frequently undermine religious legitimacy. The Unification Church in Japan, the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, and the court evangelicals who curry favor with Donald Trump all have embraced power for short-term gain while paying a profound price that threatens their long-term viability. The most successful religions build their far-reaching platforms in more complex and subtle ways that transcend immediate political gain and maintain a healthy skepticism toward power.

At other moments, however, Seabright sacrifices local context and deep historical description in the interest of demonstrating the breadth, scope, and erudition that characterize his work. This proves less convincing or engaging. One chapter, for example, discusses four features of religious institutions that Seabright views as universal and timeless. These elements consist of missions, structures, strategies, and messages. A partial list of the traditions and topics discussed in this brief 35-page treatment includes the following: contemporary South Indian temples; sixth-century Western European Christians; the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association; the Unification Church in Korea; Saint Paul; the Church of Latter-Day Saints; Pentecostal Christians; Syriac Orthodox Christians; the twelfth-century Lingayat Movement; Ottoman Bulgaria; German pietistic sects; and deities in fourteenth-century Japan. He sacrifices historical complexity and depth in favor of broad generalizations, slick treatments of complex phenomena, and a narrative that restlessly careens across eras and cultures. The results sometimes appear superficial. To take one instance, Seabright devotes a couple of sentences to the succession crisis among nineteenth-century Latter-Day Saints to illustrate his conviction that founding visions often become superseded by communal contexts that constitute a new mission for successors. He describes the way in which Brigham Young convinced his followers to leave Illinois and move westward following the assassination of Joseph Smith to prove his assertion. Yet he fails to mention that intense communalism remained at the core of the Smith vision from the outset, never explores the intense rivalries that existed among the faithful to define the mission of the founder, and does not take cognizance of important Mormon splinter groups that remain in existence to this day.

Seabright further spends considerable time discussing issues that appear tangential to his overarching thesis. He presents a plethora of secondary literature, survey data, and statistical compilations designed to refute the secularization thesis and to demonstrate that religion remains a potent force in contemporary culture. Seabright certainly succeeds, but most academics and even casual observers have long since recognized the potency of religion as an important motivating force. The Divine Economy also attempts to confront the issue of religious abuse and exploitation, but once again delivers little new insight. Seabright’s assertion that religious institutions need to create denser networks that offer vulnerable believers better outlets and support mechanisms, as well as his calls to end cultures of silence within organizations and provide more external accountability, appear logical but hardly exceptional.

Readers searching for a witty, well-written, erudite, wide-ranging, and provocative book that explores the relationship between economics and religion likely will enjoy this volume. The trendy concept of the platform certainly provides a useful theoretical framework for thinking about religious institutions and considering their persistence. However, only more focused, nuanced, and thorough microstudies can determine whether the breezy assertions made here truly apply in specific historical contexts.