Sacred Companies : Organizational Aspects of Religion and Religious Aspects of Organizations (Religion in America)

Religion is intrinsically social, and hence irretrievably organizational. Religion and organizations have separately been the objects of frequent study but their confluence has rarely been considered. This interdisciplinary collection of mostly unpublished papers is the first volume to tackle this neglected subject. The result of a three-year research project at Yale sponsored by the Lilly Endowment, the volume looks at such topics as the historical sources and patterns of U.S. religious institutions, contemporary patterns of denominational authority, the congregation as organization, and the interface between religious and secular institutions.