ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on the impact of religion on society, politics and economics. The assessment of religion urgently needs to be expanded to include not only economic development, but also social and political development. Weber suggested a theory about the economic implications of different world religions, but the idea could be framed more generally. The chapter introduces a number of variables measuring economic growth in various ways in order to inquire into the economic outcomes of religion as culture. Islam tends to be associated with negative developmental outcomes, not only political but also economic. Inquiring into a broad set of outcomes we often notice that religion shows up in, or behind, the outcome measures. Correlating religious fragmentation and outcomes offers a first view of the nature of negative religious fragmentation from the perspective of social, economic and political outcomes.
