Rezoning the Afterlife: Religion and Property Rights in the Middle Ages

Abstract

This paper reviews an economic theory of religion and uses the theory to explain changes in attitudes toward hell, heaven, and divine retribution in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. The hypothesis is straightforward. Religion serves a number of important functions, one of which is to provide an alternative to the state and to the local community in enforcing good social behavior in general and property rights in particular. As the nature of the state's power, of the influence of the local community, and of economic activity change, religious doctrine changes in a manner predictable by economic theory. Although applied to a particular period and culture, the theory is perfectly general and has implications for behavior in other cultures and other periods in history.