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Table of Contents | Cover Page | Editors | Contributors | Introduction | Web Version |
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| CONTRIBUTIONS | ||||
| Historically, religions have derived a substantial amount of their
financial revenue through some arrangement with the political system in
which they function (now generally termed the state ). This has
taken place through direct grants or through a tax either collected or
enforced by the state with proceeds passed to religious leaders (although
in most of these settings, there was also a tradition of religious begging
on the part of individual religious virtuosi).
Since the American Revolution, however, the principle of the separation of church and state has resulted in a decrease of state-supported religious establishments and an increase in the dependence of religions on voluntary contributions . In various Anglo-American traditions, these are known as tithes, pledges, dues , or offerings , while the process of fund-raising may be placed into a larger context as stewardship . Regardless of the term, the nature of the voluntary contributory system means that religious organizations are dependent upon their members for the organization's ongoing maintenance. Either direct contributions or endowments provide the primary material resources for all organized religion in the United States. Social scientists recently have become interested in the processes that lead people to contribute and that build successful contributory systems for religious institutions. Paramount in this research is Dean Hoge et al.s' Money Matters: Personal Giving in American Churches (Westminster 1996) and an issue of the Review of Religious Research guest edited by Hoge, "Patterns of Financial Contributions to Churches" (Vol. 36, No. 2, Dec. 1994). —William H. Swatos, Jr . |
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Hartford
Institute for Religion Research hirr@hartsem.edu
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