Definition
Religious organizations are organizations whose identity and mission are derived from a religious or spiritual tradition and which operate as registered or unregistered, nonprofit, voluntary entities.
Introduction
Religious organizations are among the oldest associations: Sufi and Catholic orders, and Buddhist Sanghas, carried the teachings and practices of their respective faiths across diverse regions long before the notion of “religion” came to signify a separate domain within human life. Today, despite predictions that modernity would push religion to the margins, religious communities continue to grow and to exert a major influence on society. The Pew Forum on Religion, in its 2012 study of global religious demographics, reported 2.2 billion Christians, 1.6 billion Muslims, one billion Hindus, nearly 500 million Buddhists (7 %), and 14 million Jews around...
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References
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Berger, J. (2016). Religious Organizations. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2514-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2514-1
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