Rationality, Choice, and the Religious Economy: Individual and Collective Rationality in Supply and Demand

Abstract

One of the most useful contributions of rational choice theories to the sociology of religion has been the concept of the religious economy. However, this study argues that the rational choice view of the religious economy still suffers from serious shortcomings. Here, I argue that the concept of rationality in economic action is more complex than rational choice theorists generally recognize. Part of this complexity involves the multi-dimensional nature of the concept and part of it involves the fact that degrees of rationality in individual actions must be understood in relation to collective actions and contexts. One of the consequences of the underdeveloped understanding of rationality is that theorists have tended to gloss over the processes by which individuals and groups make decisions that create demands for specific types of religious goods. I attempt to approach these problem by describing the dimensions of rationality, by describing the relations between rationality at the individual level and at aggregate levels, and by providing a schematization to suggest how supply of religious goods and demand for them interact at individual and collective levels.