Jesus and the Ratchet

From Polytheism to Monotheism: Zoroaster and Some Economic Theory

“…Furthermore, unlike Jesus of Nazareth and many early Christians, Zoroaster was not martyred and martyrdom has no place in the religion's tradition; and unlike Moses, other Jewish prophets, Jesus, many Christian saints and martyrs, and the prophet Muhammad, neither he nor his followers are reported as performing miracles (Woodward, 2000). Hence, two of the most powerful engines of historical conversion to monotheism (as modeled in Ferrero, 2014aFerrero, , 2016 are missing in Zoroastrianism, which makes its success and persistence all the more remarkable.…”

“…Comparisons with these two polytheistic systems will help to put Zoroastrianism into analytical perspective. On the other hand, the paper contributes to the meager economic literature on the birth of monotheism, which includes Raskovich's (1996) pioneering work on Judaism as well as Ferrero's (2014aFerrero's ( , 2014bFerrero's ( , 2016 on Christianity.…”

From Jesus to Christianity: The economics of sacrifice

“… 1. This article complements two more efforts to model the transition from Jesus’ mission to the established church. Ferrero (2014b) models the career of the historical Jesus and shows that Jesus may have been trapped by the incentive to maintain and increase his following; this led him to raise his challenge and confront an increasingly hostile opposition through a kind of ratchet mechanism, culminating in his ominous death. Ferrero (2014a) offers an entry deterrence model of religious competition that interprets Paul’s release of the Christians from the yoke of Jewish law (in his letter to the Galatians) as a strategic move designed to prevent Jewish entry in the Gentile mission market. …”