Explaining the role of religion in societal progress has for long remained a major challenge to thinkers observing the varieties of success and failure in the progress of societies towards wealth and a better life for their people. In the Western world, from the full analysis by Adam Smith two and a half centuries ago, and his insistence on addressing the question of ‘moral sentiments’, to more recent returns to the same issue by writers such as Deidre McCloskey, and Gertrude Himmelfarb, the question of how such influence works remains open to clarification. This is the terrain walked over in this book. In doing so, the walk is taken in the company of scholars who have dedicated years of enquiry into specific countries and religions, and each of them is well recognized in his or her specialism. They have in addition been encouraged to explain not just their theories, but the facts on the ground as they exist in China, India, Russia, Indonesia, South Africa, and Eastern Europe. They do so on the basis of current studies in the environments they observe. An overall guide to world trends is provided at the outset, as is also a statement of the setting of the core question: how does religion sponsor or otherwise a society' progress towards prosperity?