This piece is a prologue to a symposium, cosponsored by the Acton Institute, that asks its contributors: Does professional economics need enrichment by religious or quasi-religious thinking? Many common criticisms of professional economics propose the incorporation of richer concepts and...

The Prologue to this issue discusses how the flatness of economics leaves out aspects of reality that do not fit neatly into its formulations. I agree that much is left out, but I am not so sure methodology is to blame. Rather, the omission is caused by our restriction of economic methodology to...

Around the year 3000 BC in Mesopotamia, today’s Iraq, based on archaeological research, the earliest civilizations in the Middle East were founded. The Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians and the Israelites and other nations, later will appear on the map of history, being organized in small...

This paper empirically investigates the difference between Islamic and conventional banks in terms of business dynamics, cost structure, credit quality, and stability. It also examines the difference in the response of two types of banks during peak and trough phases of the business cycle. The...

The church tax revenue in 2022 was estimated at 13 billion euros. This is an increase of around 300 million euros compared to 2021. The Catholic Church accounted for around 6.8 billion euros in 2022, and the Protestant Church around 6.2 billion euros. However, further increases are likely to be...

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the critical factors responsible for the success of religious tourism in Romania, meaning a sustainable success. In the special case of religious tourism, this seems much easier to accomplish, but in Romania there is a lack...