Political Economy of Indo-European Polytheism

Mario Ferrero is an economist specializing in comparative economic systems, political economy, conflict, terrorism, and religion. In the past twenty years, he has focused on important problems of religious history, including the birth of Christianity, the Catholic Church, and the Reformation, Islam, and polytheism. He has published widely in academic journals and edited volumes.

• Acknowledgments.- Introduction: Polytheism and Economics.- Part I The Beginnings.- 2 Greeks and Romans: The Religions Without Professional Priests.- 3 Celts and Germans: The Elusive Religions.- 4 Indians and Iranians: The Priestly Religions.- Part II The Endings.- 5 Extinction: Polytheism Unreformed.- 6 Death and Rebirth: Polytheism Reformed.- Part III The Economics.- 7 Economic Analysis: From Typology to Outcomes.- 8 Economic Models: Gods, Supplicants, and Priests.- 9 Conclusions.- References.- Index.

“The work under review sets out to bring an economist’s perspective to a subject hitherto dominated by philologists and scholars of the region. The author’s ambition is to compare the ways in which polytheistic developed separately in different Indo-European traditions; more specifically, to use political economy theory ... . Ferrero's arguments … are in general stimulating and add some refreshing new perspectives, and it is to be hoped that his work will inspire more efforts in the same direction.” (Per-Johan Norelius, The Journal of Indo-European Studies, Vol. 51 (1-2), 2023)