ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the academic literature at the juncture of neo-institutional concerns about organization environments and religious scholars' concerns about making sense of the organizational structures that deliver religious social service. Differences in religious doctrine may more subtly contribute to organization culture and structure. Religious organizations are different from secular counterparts, argues Chaves, because of their dual structure, which weaves together religious authority with an agency structure. One might think that, due to the US separation between church and state, there might be little law to guide the functioning of religious organizations. With social policy amendments to the doctrine of separation of church and state, the issue of what difference religion makes to a nonprofit organization has been ascendant. An interesting empirical question is whether the organizational differences among faith-based organizations are greater than the differences between all faith-based organizations and all secular organizations.
