Abstract
Faith and Money is a thoughtfully written and convincingly argued book about the financial blessings and banes that emanate from religion. The inviting cover of this empirically rich volume features a photo of a church sign advertising the congregation’s four-week class on money. The sign’s promotional moniker reads “Unlock God’s Blessing for Finances.” That advertisement brought back memories of my own fieldwork in a conservative Protestant congregation some years ago. My fieldwork examined gender negotiation among couples in this congregation, and the church offered a class on “financial stewardship” during my field research. When promoting the class, the course’s teacher was fond of mentioning that the Bible contained more verses about money than nearly any other topic. I never did check his math by tallying up biblical references to money, but my subsequent travels in other congregations and religious movements have underscored the close, yet complex links between financial resources and religious involvement. Lisa Keister’s volume takes on this important issue and is a must-read on the subject.
This monograph aims to deliver a “comprehensive, contemporary, empirically grounded discussion of how religion, various individual and household processes, and wealth outcomes are related” (p. 5). And Keister’s tour de force delivers on this promise. It is important to note at the outset that wealth is the principal focus here. Some attention is paid to employment and income in Chapter Three, but these more proximate outcomes tend to contribute to wealth disparities that are the subject of Chapters Four and Five at the heart of this volume. Wealth is defined broadly to include asset ownership, debt, savings, and net worth. Thus, wealth has an “upside” (e.g., total assets, upward mobility) and a “downside” (e.g., debt, downward mobility). And, to her credit, Keister investigates both sides of the wealth spectrum. A nuanced story emerges, such that some forms of religious affiliation enhance wealth while others obstruct or even undermine it. In many respects, wealth provides a more stringent test of the influence of religion on economic outcomes than do other forms of inequality (e.g., income) because wealth disparities are often a product of long-term processes such as education, family size, choice of occupation, and so forth. Put differently, it is quite possible that the effect of cultural factors like religion would be diluted or altogether absent because structural determinants of wealth have been shown to exert such an overriding influence. But, with a keen analytical eye and an abundance of data to support her conclusions, Keister addresses how and why religion matters with respect to wealth. This is not to say that structural factors fail to predict variations in wealth accumulation. Previous research has certainly documented this pattern. However, Keister’s corrective to this structurally focused literature is that the influence of cultural factors such as religion cannot be discounted. In many cases, their consequences on wealth accumulation are profound.
How does religion influence wealth accumulation? The complex processes discerned by Keister defy a succinct summary here. But quite vital to the process is the way in which religious orientations, which differ considerably by denominational family, shape life choices such as educational attainment, marriage timing, family size, occupational selection and, relatedly, income. Thus, religion often influences wealth accumulation indirectly by creating the conditions for long-term consequences that facilitate asset accumulation among “notable achievers” such as Jews, Mormons, and Mainline Protestants. But religion is equally capable of inhibiting wealth accumulation, as has generally been the case with conservative Protestants. (On this latter point, Keister is careful to acknowledge recent signs of greater wealth accumulation among conservative Protestants.)
As someone who has long had an interest in gender and religion, I was pleased to see how Keister considers gender in examining the relationship between religion and wealth accumulation. Conservative religious affiliation may undermine asset accumulation by steering women away from educational and occupational pursuits that often boost household assets. However, there are interesting permutations and even some changes afoot on this front. For example, despite their continued commitment to theological conservatism, Latter-day Saints (LDS, Mormons) have long exhibited greater educational attainment and wealth accumulation. However, Mormon men’s decided advantage in educational attainment when compared with Mormon women is diminishing. Keister astutely notes that LDS leaders encourage both men and women to pursue advanced educational degrees (based on Mormon beliefs that the knowledge gained through education is of great value in this life and the hereafter). I would further speculate that broader social factors (e.g., American women’s increasing educational attainment, more pervasive marital instability) have also increased Mormon women’s attraction to pursuing advanced degrees.
Chapter Eight of this volume really stands out for its innovative approach to issues related to religion and material well-being. This chapter represents Keister’s welcome effort to move beyond current data limitations and consider how the relationship between religion and wealth might be influenced by a diverse array of social factors. Consequently, this chapter is less empirical, but offers compelling hypotheses and creative directions for future research throughout. Among the issues taken up by Keister in Chapter Eight is the possible influence of religious factors apart from affiliation. Given limitations in many data sets, Keister generally operationalizes religion through denominational affiliation in this volume. In this chapter, she suggests that religiosity—that is, the intensity of commitment or involvement within a faith community—is likely to magnify denominational variations in wealth disparities. And building on findings presented in an earlier chapter, she also hypothesizes that religiously based charitable giving is likely to reduce net wealth. She does entertain possible alternatives because financial investments in religious organizations can provide returns (congregational assistance) in the face of financial difficulties. Keister also considers how health, financial literacy, saving, consumption, and a host of other economic orientations might intervene in the relationship between religion and wealth.
Faith and Money would be an appropriate book for courses in the sociology of religion, stratification and inequality, economic sociology, and cultural sociology. The book provides a comprehensive assessment of the ways in which religion yields distinctive wealth outcomes, both directly (e.g., religious beliefs about work, saving, consumption) and indirectly (e.g., denominational variations in human capital accumulation that, in turn, produce wealth differentials). Although data limitations do not permit Keister to operationalize the effects of specific religious beliefs (e.g., biblical literalism, religious salience) on material well-being, she exhibits a detailed knowledge of the theological and ideological commitments that hold sway in major denominational families. This book is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship that underscores the ongoing influence of religion in twenty-first-century America.