This paper explores the relationship between religious denomination and individual attitudes to corporate social responsibility within the context of a large sample of over 17,000 individuals drawn from 20 countries. We address two general questions: do members of religious denominations have different attitudes concerning CSR than people of no denomination? And: do members of different religions have different attitudes to CSR that conform to general priors about the teachings of different religions? Our evidence suggests that, broadly, religious individuals do tend to hold broader conceptions of the social responsibilities of businesses than non-religious individuals. However, we show that this neither true for all religious groups, nor for all areas of corporate social responsibility.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID905182_code634270.pdf?abstractid=905182&mirid=1&type=2

Religion and Attitudes to Corporate Social Responsibility in a Large Cross-Country Sample

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Should Trees Have Standing? Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects

The Politics of Jesus

The publication of Mayo Ethnobotany deserves our celebration. Combining field observations, library and herbarium research, authors Yetman and Van Devender pooled their resources to produce a comprehensive portrait of the geology, geography, history, language, culture and botany of the Mayos, an indigenous people of northwestern Mexico. As with many other cultures, Mayo traditional knowledge is rapidly being lost as the people are absorbed into modern Mexico. The authors, who started out working in the Rı́o Mayo region independently and explored the land for several years unbeknownst to each other, spent six years studying the Mayo region, though their studies continue. They had previously lived and worked in the Sonoran Desert for decades, and their attention was drawn to Rı́o Mayo because the ‘‘desert dwindles away and merges into more tropical’’ systems. The book’s contents are divided into two sections. Part one consists of a description of the people and the land, a brief ethnography of the Mayos, their history, and an overview of plant and animal life. That section concludes with an extended portrayal of ‘‘Eight Plants that Make Mayos Mayos,’’ nominated because they are known to all, and integral to Mayo life. Part two, the second half the book, is devoted to an annotated list of plants arranged alphabetically by plant family. The list appears to be complete, both in species listed, and usage. The botanical descriptions are detailed and picturesque, and special attention is given to information about habitat. Culinary, medicinal and veterinary use, industrial, construction, artifact, and every other human use are relayed. Non-native crop species are included when they make a significant contribution to the cash economy of the growers. Hence, we learn that many Mayos plant ajonjoli (sesame) as a cash crop. Thousands of acres of ajonjoli are planted in the Mayo region and almost all of the seeds are sold in the international market. They are accustomed to ‘‘interplant beans, squash and, above all, watermelon,’’ a practice that reminds this writer of a similar list of species intercropped with sesame in the Wadi Hadhramaut region of Yemen. Care was taken to present supplemental documentary records. A number of informative black and white illustrations are scattered through the volume. Six Appendices offer data that may be useful to future researchers: Mayo region place names and their meanings; Yoreme consultants; Gazetteer of the Mayo region; Mayo plants listed by Spanish names; Mayo plants listed by Mayo name; and Glossary of Mayo and Spanish terms. A dozen pages of notes at the end of the book provide elaboration of specific facts. Another dozen pages devoted to a thorough index follow a five-page bibliography. Affordable and easy to read and to use, it should be added to every professional’s library.

A Sand County Almanac with Essays on Conservation

THE POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION Mark R. Royce, Ph.D. George Mason University, 2016 Dissertation Director: Dr. Mariely Lopez-Santana This dissertation undertakes the first comprehensive examination of the degree to which national traditions of political theology may inform patterns of West European integration. Scholarly literature has generally reduced postwar integration to economic or technocratic incentives, but the present analysis subjects seventeen West European countries to Boolean techniques of qualitative comparative analysis in order to establish both their prevailing traditions of political theology and degrees of European integration. The findings indicate that the Roman Catholic countries are more, but the Protestant countries less integrated with Europe as a whole; and the argument is entertained that the hierarchy and cosmopolitanism of the Roman Catholic faith is more conducive to European integration than the deeper emphasis on national identity and sovereignty inculcated by the various divisions of Protestant Christianity. These influences are accounted for through a causal narrative by which the theological confrontations of the sixteenth century were settled through the constitutional revolutions of the seventeenth, which in turn influenced comparative political decisions of the twentieth concerning European integration.

The Political Theology of European Integration

1. Introduction: Economics and Religion? H.G. Brennan, A.M.C. Waterman. Case Studies: 2. Theological Positions and Economic Perspectives in Ancient Literature B. Gordon. 3. Whately, Senior and the Methodology of Classical Economics A.M.C. Waterman. 4. John Bates Clark: the Religious Imperative J.F. Henry. 5. Wicksteed: Economist and Prophet I. Steedman. 6. Frank Knight: Economics versus Religion R.B. Emmett. 7. ORDO Liberalism and the Social Market Economy R.E. Wagner. 8. Keynes and Knowledge T.K. Rymes. Interpretative Essays: 9. The Impact of Theological Predisposition on Economics: a Commentary H.G. Brennan. 10. Mappings of (Economic) Meaning: Here be Monsters A.B. Cramp. 11. The Religious Content of Economics S.C. Dow. 12. Comments G.C. Harcourt. 13. Review of the Evidence P. Heyne. 14. Economics as Religion R.H. Nelson. 15. The Impossibility of a Theologically Sensitive Economics K.I. Vaughn. 16. Summary if not Conclusions H.G. Brennan, A.M.C. Waterman. References. Author Index. Subject Index.

Economics and religion : are they distinct?

A well-trained theologian, a gifted and dedicated teacher of economics for over forty years, and the author of a highly regarded and widely used textbook, "The Economic Way of Thinking", Paul Heyne influenced generations of students of economics. Many of the essays in this volume are published here for the first time. The editors, Geoffrey Brennan and A M C Waterman, have divided Heyne's essays thematically to cover three general areas: the ethical foundations of free markets, the connection between those ethical foundations and Christian thought, and the teaching of economics -- both method and substance. Heyne's writings are unique in that he takes the critics of the free market order seriously and addresses their arguments directly, showing how they are defective in their understanding of economics and in their ethical and theological underpinnings. The engaging style of Heyne's essays makes them accessible to students as well as to scholars. Even in discussions of topics well beyond the fundamental level, Heyne still succeeds in providing students with an appreciation of basic economic principles.

"Are Economists Basically Immoral?": and Other Essays on Economics, Ethics, and Religion

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Christian Theology and Economics: Convergence and Clashes

Some years ago, the two editors and another contributor to this volume were invited to a small conference on Economics and Religion organized by the late Karl Brunner. Brunner had assembled a group of “liberation theologians” with a (somewhat larger) number of notable economists, including at least one Nobel Laureate, to which he added a few other economists known to have religious beliefs, of whom Brennan, Waterman, and Heyne were three. Brunner’s object seemed to be to demonstrate to the liberation theologians the hopeless inadequacy of their understanding of the economic order.

Anthony Michael C. Waterman

Papers

Economics and religion : are they distinct?

"Are Economists Basically Immoral?": and Other Essays on Economics, Ethics, and Religion

Christian Theology and Economics: Convergence and Clashes

Introduction: Economics and Religion?