On the surface, Facebook is about as far removed from the Catholic Church as physically possible. But, perhaps by thinking of religions like platform businesses, we can get to the heart of how religions work, why they do what they do, and that the adage ‘if the product is free, you’re the product’ is just as applicable to religions as it is to YouTube. Paul Seabright argues that thinking of religions like an economist can discover valuable new insights into The Divine Economy.

Religion seems like an odd subject for the economist. After all, religion deals with gods and demons, the passage of the mortal soul and the moral laws that construct our reality. But why is any one religion the way it is? Why do they have rituals? And how do they inspire loyalty? One way to approach these questions is to investigate how religions respond to the social and material environment they share with other institutions.