Yang Zhiyin’s article, “An Empirical Study on the Research Object and Definition of the Economics of Religion,” represents a significant contribution to the interdisciplinary field straddling economics, religious studies, and sociology. At a time when the economics of religion remains undertheorized in Chinese academia, Yang’s work undertakes the foundational task of clarifying the discipline’s object of study—namely, religious economic entities—and proposes a comprehensive definition grounded in empirical evidence and comparative analysis. The article begins by situating the study within a historical and methodological framework. Yang rightly notes that while religious communities have long reflected on and regulated their own economic practices—predating the formal discipline of economics by centuries—systematic academic inquiry into religious economics from an economic standpoint only emerged in the 20th century. He compellingly demonstrates this through examples from Islamic, Buddh...
...in his own words and in the words of others who read his works
