type="main" <title type="main">Summary</title> <p>This paper sets forth a theory of competition between exclusive religions as an entry deterrence game, in which the incumbent may find it profitable not to accommodate but to deter the competitor's entry by precommitting to sufficient capacity expansion in the event of entry....</p>

The Roman Catholic Church has been turning out new saints for two millennia. The argument advanced here is that the saint-making process is arranged as an open contest for sainthood: by combining competitive initiative and pressure from below with exclusive adjudication from above, it provides...