Hell, Religion, and Cultural Change

Abstract

This paper's key conclusion is that church doctrine about the afterlife is a function of factors predictable with economic theory. Religion, like government, family, and community can enforce property rights and encourage socially valuable behavior. Religious doctrines about hell as punishment for breaking rules that arguably benefit society will occur in religions in cultures where the church is relatively more influential than the family, community, and government. Statistical material from the Human Relations Area Files tends to support the model's implications as does informal analysis of New England colonial Puritan doctrine about hell.