"theological refinement is the kind of progress that results in organizational bankruptcy."

      Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The churching of America, 1776-2005:  winners and losers in our religious economy, 2nd ed. (New Brunswick:  Rutgers University Press, 2005), 8.  Note well, however, that by "intellectual 'progress'" or "theological refinement" Finke and Stark mean theological liberalization.  For

the standards against which refinement is usually judged are entirely secular—parsimony, clarity, logical unity, graceful expression, and the like.  One seldom encounters standards of theological progress or refinement based on how effectively a doctrine could stir the faithful or satisfy the heart.  As a result, the history of American religious ideas [(as distinguished from human actions and organizations)] always turns into an historical account of the march toward liberalism.  That is, religious ideas always become more refined (i.e., better) when they are shorn of mystery, miracle, and mysticism—when an active supernatural realm is replaced by abstractions concerning virtue [(7)].

     The use of economic tools in no way suggests that the content of religion is unimportant, that it is all a matter of clever marketing and energetic selling.  To the contrary, we will argue that the primary market weakness that has caused the failure of many denomination, and the impending failure of many more, is precisely a matter of doctrinal content, or the lack of it.  That is, we will repeatedly suggest that as denominations have modernized their doctrines and embraced temporal values, they have gone into decline [(9)].