OFFERTORY
This book is a study of Supernaturalism from a new point of view—as a Source of Income and a Shield to Privilege. I have searched the libraries through, and no one has done it before. If you read it, you will see that it needed to be done. It has meant twenty-five years of thought and a year of investigation. It contains the facts.
I publish the book myself, so that it may be available at the lowest possible price. I am giving my time and energy, in return for one thing which you may give me—the joy of speaking a true word and getting it heard.
Note to fifth edition, 1926: "The Profits of Religion" was first published early in 1917. The present edition represents a sale of over 60,000 copies, without counting a dozen translations. In this edition a few errors have been corrected, but otherwise the book has not been changed. The reader will understand that references to the World War are of the date 1917, prior to America's entrance.
This book is the first of a series of volumes, an economic interpretation of culture, which now includes "The Brass Check," "The Goose-step," "The Goslings," and "Mammonart."
[CONTENTS]
- Introductory
- [Bootstrap-lifting]
- [Religion]
- Book One: The Church of the Conquerors
- [The Priestly Lie]
- [The Great Fear]
- [Salve Regina!]
- [Fresh Meat]
- [Priestly Empires]
- [Prayer-wheels]
- [The Butcher-Gods]
- [The Holy Inquisition]
- [Hell-fire]
- Book Two: The Church of Good Society
- [The Rain Makers]
- [The Babylonian Fire-God]
- [The Medicine-men]
- [The Canonization of Incompetence]
- [Gibson's Preservative]
- [The Elders]
- [Church History]
- [Land and Livings]
- [Graft in Tail]
- [Bishops and Beer]
- [Anglicanism and Alcohol]
- [Dead Cats]
- ["Suffer Little Children"]
- [The Court-circular]
- [Horn-blowing]
- [Trinity Corporation]
- [Spiritual Interpretation]
- Book Three: The Church of the Servant Girls
- [Charity]
- [God's Armor]
- [Thanksgivings]
- [The Holy Roman Empire]
- [Temporal Power]
- [Knights of Slavery]
- [Priests and Police]
- [The Church Militant]
- [The Church Triumphant]
- [God in the Schools]
- [The Menace]
- [King Coal]
- [The Unholy Alliance]
- [Secret Service]
- [Tax Exemption]
- [Holy History]
- [Das Centrum]
- Book Four: The Church of the Slavers
- [The Face of Caesar]
- [Deutsehland ueber Alles]
- [Der Tag]
- [King Cotton]
- [Witches and Women]
- [Moth and Rust]
- [To Lyman Abbott]
- [The Octopus]
- [The Industrial Shelley]
- [The Outlook for Graft]
- [Clerical Camouflage]
- [The Jungle]
- Book Five: The Church of the Merchants
- [The Head Merchant]
- ["Herr Beeble"]
- [Holy Oil]
- [Rhetorical Black-hanging]
- [The Great American Fraud]
- [Riches in Glory]
- [Captivating Ideals]
- [Spook Hunting]
- [Running the Rapids]
- [Birth Control]
- [Sheep]
- Book Six: The Church of the Quacks
- [Tabula Rasa]
- [The Book of Mormon]
- [Holy Rolling]
- [Bible Prophecy]
- [Koreshanity]
- [Mazdaznan]
- [Black Magic]
- [Mental Malpractice]
- [Science and Wealth]
- [New Nonsense]
- ["Dollars Want Me!"]
- [Spiritual Financiering]
- [The Graft of Grace]
- Book Seven: The Church of the Social Revolution
- [Christ and Caesar]
- [Locusts and Wild Honey]
- [Mother Earth]
- [The Soap Box]
- [The Church Machine]
- [The Church Redeemed]
- [The Desire of Nations]
- [The Knowable]
- ["Nature's Insurgent Son"]
- [The New Morality]
- [Envoi]
- [INDEX]