Events

The divine economy: how religions compete for wealth, power, and people

Hosted by the Programme on Cohesive Capitalism

In-person and online public event (Sheikh Zayed Theatre, Cheng Kin Ku Building)

Speaker

Professor Paul Seabright

Professor Paul Seabright

Chair

Dr Mohamed Saleh

Dr Mohamed Saleh

Religion in the twenty-first century is alive and well across the world, despite its apparent decline in North America and parts of Europe. Vigorous competition between and within religious movements has led to their accumulating great power and wealth.

Join us as Paul Seabright talks about his latest book, The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and People.

Meet our speaker and chair

Paul Seabright teaches economics at the Toulouse School of Economics. Until 2021, he was director of the multidisciplinary Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse. From 2021 to 2023, he was a Fellow of All Souls College at the University of Oxford. His previous books include The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life.

Mohamed Saleh is Associate Professor of Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is also a research affiliate in economic history at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). Prior to joining LSE in 2022, he was a Professor of Economics at the Toulouse School of Economics. His research focuses on the economic history of identity and historical political economy.

More about this event

This event will be available to watch on LSE Live. LSE Live is the new home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can't attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE's YouTube channel.

The Programme on Cohesive Capitalism is a major multi-disciplinary initiative to investigate new politico-economic paradigms, institutions and policies that could serve the common interest. Led by Professor Tim Besley, and housed in STICERD and the Department of Economics, it will bring together world-class thinkers in political philosophy and the social sciences to address some of the fundamental questions about the kind of world that we want to create and what is needed to bring it about.

Hashtag for this event: #LSEReligion

Podcast & Video

A podcast of this event is available to download from The divine economy: how religions compete for wealth, power, and people.

A video of this event is available to watch at The divine economy: how religions compete for wealth, power, and people.

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.

LSE Blogs

Many speakers at LSE events also write for LSE Blogs, which present research and critical commentary accessibly for a public audience. Follow British Politics and Policy, the Business Review, the Impact BlogEuropean Politics and Policy and the LSE Review of Books to learn more about the debates our events series present.

Live captions

Automated live captions are available at this live event. Please note that this feature uses Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology, or machine generated transcription and is not 100% accurate.

Photography

Photographs taken on behalf of LSE are often used on our social media accounts, website and publications. At events, photographs could include broad shots of the audience and lecture theatre, of speakers during the talk, and of audience members as they participate in the Q&A.

If you are photographed participating in an event Q&A but would not like your photograph to be stored for future use, please contact events@lse.ac.uk.

Podcasts

We aim to make all LSE events available as a podcast subject to receiving permission from the speaker/s to do this, and subject to no technical problems with the recording of the event. Podcasts are normally available 1 week after the event. Podcasts and videos of past events can be found online.

Social Media

Follow LSE public events on Twitter for notification on the availability of an event podcast, the posting of transcripts and videos, the announcement of new events and other important event updates. Event updates and other information about what’s happening at LSE can be found on the LSE's Facebook page and for live photos from events and around campus, follow us on Instagram. For live webcasts and archive video of lectures, follow us on YouTube

LSE in Pictures is a selection of images taken by the school photographer.

Accessibility

If you are planning to attend this event and would like details on how to get here and what time to arrive, as well as on accessibility and special requirements, please refer to LSE Events FAQ.  LSE aims to ensure that people have equal access to these public events, but please contact the events organiser as far as possible in advance if you have any access requirements so that arrangements, where possible, can be made. If the event is ticketed, please ensure you get in touch in advance of the ticket release date. Access Guides to all our venues can be viewed online.

WIFI Access

LSE has now introduced wireless for guests and visitors in association with 'The Cloud', also in use at many other locations across the UK. If you are on campus visiting for the day or attending a conference or event, you can connect your device to wireless. See more information and create an account at Join the Cloud.
Visitors from other participating institutions are encouraged to use eduroam. If you are having trouble connecting to eduroam, please contact your home institution for assistance.
The Cloud is only intended for guest and visitor access to wifi. Existing LSE staff and students are encouraged to use eduroam instead.
From time to time there are changes to event details so we strongly recommend that if you plan to attend this event you check back on this listing on the day of the event.