Accounting: sacred or secular activity?

Academic literature wish for greater scientific attention as regards those topics which concern the relationship between accounting and religion, as we might read “Despite the recent major interest in research on the relationship between accounting and religion, the findings still remain at an embryonic stage. More research effort is required by scholars to attend to this major research area.” (Carmona & Ezzamel, 2006, p.125). The Authors emphasise certain limitations within the study of those topics that fall within the field of accounting and religion. This, according to our viewpoint, presents a presupposition which limits the effective impact of the religious body to the level of the surrounding economic system wherein it operates. Moreover, the circumscription of the spiritual dimension purely to practices of the faith diminishes connection with daily life external to it. In this paper we want to analyse the relationships among accounting and religion literature to reply to the research question: “Is accounting placed in the sacred or in the secular sphere of the enterprise?”. Within this framework (accounting & religion), still relatively young and little explored in recent years two currents of interpretation emerged that revolve around the central theme of the "sacred-secular divide”. Among the doctrine trends, we can point out those who hold that there is a clear-cut separation between that activity which belongs to worship (sacred) and accounting, which is bound up, according to a certain current of thought, within the secular sphere. Accounting was seen as part of the profane world and, as such, its use in the church was viewed as an unwanted intervention into the world of the sacred. Another manner of thinking, on the contrary, sanctions a strong link between the activity of worship and that pertaining in keeping the books. Roberts and Scapens (1985) consider the accountability and not so much the communication of their actions but the communication of their behaviour for which there may be a connection between the sacred and the profane sphere. There are many contributions that have taken place with respect to this argument (which were dedicated spaces in special numbers of international journals such as Accounting History, 2006; Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2004) to highlight how accounting is marginal compared to the sacred. Consequently, our aim is to offer a further interpretative keys and insights departing from the assumption that the corporate culture is influenced by the anthropological culture(Hopwood, 1978; Catturi, 2003). Our idea is that when one believes in God, there are areas and activities where the presence of “the sacred” is more immediate and others (accounting) where applying one’s belief is but indirect. The paper id divided in two sections, the first is involving literature review and the second is about the discussion and conclusion.