Vassili Joannides
email: vassili.joannides@grenoble-em.com

Nicolas Berland
email: nicolas.berland@dauphine.fr

Keywords: religion, accounting, Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Control as practice

Our paper addresses what the moral foundations of accounting are, regardless of capitalistic operations, as we are seeking to trace a genealogy of accounting thinking disconnected from coincidence with Capitalism. We demonstrate that the three monotheisms have bared the core of accounting. We purport to explicate how the three monotheisms (Judaism, Christianity divided into Roman Catholicism and Protestantisms, and Islam) have successively revealed the nature of accounting to moralise people's day-to-day conduct. Our approach to the revelation of accounting is informed with practice theory to study how accounting was used in believers' day-today activities and faith management. To this end, we read theological debates on accounting from Rabbinic, Islamic, Catholic and Protestant literatures raised at the time of the Reformation. Our study reveals that, in the four religions, bookkeeping serves as routine and rules to account for daily conduct, its content being contingent upon common understandings (viz. God's identity, capabilities and expectations) and teleoaffective structures (viz. definition of and ways to salvation). Through this paper, we demonstrate that accounting issues have always served as a sub-practice in moral practices and is therefore not necessarily coincidental with economic operations. Ultimately, we contribute to literature on the genesis of accounting, accounting as situated practice and accounting as moral practice.

In accounting research, it has been commonly agreed that accounting was born coincidentally with Capitalism [START_REF] Bryer | Double-Entry Bookkeeping and the Birth of Capitalism: Accounting for the Commercial Revolution in Medieval Northern Italy[END_REF]2000a;b;[START_REF] Carruthers | Accounting for rationality: Double-Entry Bookkeeping and the rhetoric of economic rationality[END_REF][START_REF] Chiapello | Accounting and the birth of the notion of capitalism[END_REF][START_REF] Derks | Religion, capitalism and the rise of double-entry bookkeeping[END_REF][START_REF] Miller | Genealogies of calculation[END_REF]. All these works are very suggestive of Weber's argument that economic rationality needs a rational and systematic ordering of assets and liabilities, as in the Capital account. As Capitalism is not uniform and varies across cultures, space and time [START_REF] Deeg | The rise of internal capitalist diversity? Changing patterns of finance and corporate governance in Europe[END_REF][START_REF] Lane | Capitalist diversity and diversity within capitalism[END_REF], one could wonder alongside which form of Capitalism accounting was born. It is also argued that accounting serves as a moral practice within Capitalism and is therefore influenced by religious thought underpinned by faith [START_REF] Carruthers | Accounting for rationality: Double-Entry Bookkeeping and the rhetoric of economic rationality[END_REF][START_REF] Maltby | Accounting and the soul of the middle-class: Gustav Freytag's Soll und Haben[END_REF][START_REF] Mckernan | Accounting, love and justice[END_REF]2007;[START_REF] Mcphail | Accounting and Business Ethics -an introduction[END_REF]. In such a context, it is consistent and unsurprising that Lucca Pacioli on one hand and merchants on the other wrote on the bottom of their books of accounts "in the name of God" to whom they were addressed [START_REF] Carruthers | Accounting for rationality: Double-Entry Bookkeeping and the rhetoric of economic rationality[END_REF][START_REF] Maltby | Accounting and the soul of the middle-class: Gustav Freytag's Soll und Haben[END_REF]. This points to whether books of accounts been kept for economic or religious reasons.

Obviously, economic and religious rationales for the development of accounting are intertwined. As the economic part has been extensively studied, this paper addresses what the an-economic foundations of accounting are through emphasis on the spiritual dimension. Following the stream of thought arguing that accounting is a practice moralising conduct, we explicate how the religions of the Book (Judaism, Christianity divided into Roman Catholicism and Protestantisms, and Islam) supported the development of accounts of day-today activities as spiritual practice. Positioned in accounting history, we focus on Reformation time, climax of theological debates on how to render accounts of faithful conduct to God. Day-to-day activities and the way they develop accounting are observed through the lens of practice theory, i.e, a bundle common understandings, routines, rules and teleoaffective structures (see Schatzki, 2000a). Doing so, we follow prior works on management accounting and control as practice [START_REF] Ahrens | The structuration of legitimate performance measures and management: day-to-day contests of accountability in a U.K. restaurant chain[END_REF]2007) or accounting and strategising [START_REF] Jørgensen | Accounting and strategising: a case study from new product development[END_REF].

We note that, in the four religions, bookkeeping serves as routine and rules to account for daily conduct, its content being contingent upon common understandings (viz. God's identity, capabilities and expectations) and teleoaffective structures (viz. definition of and ways to salvation). Through this paper, we demonstrate that accounting issues have always served as a sub-practice in moral practices and is therefore not necessarily coincidental with economic operations. In other words, the case of the four religions reveals that the design of accounting systems is contingent upon the social context in which they operate. Ultimately, an accounting system upholding the morals of business operations should offer routines and rules consistent with the common understandings and teleoaffective structures driving them, reflection on these being crucial. our approach to accounting thinking as the logic of dual world categorising. Second, to provide the reader with an intelligible text, we establish connections between accounting and religion through the path of practice theory, which offers a common base for the understanding of the two phenomena studied.

Accounting as mode of thinking

It is commonly agreed in the literature that double entry bookkeeping and other calculative threads of accounting have developed alongside Capitalism [START_REF] Bryer | Double-Entry Bookkeeping and the Birth of Capitalism: Accounting for the Commercial Revolution in Medieval Northern Italy[END_REF]2000a;b;[START_REF] Bryer | The genesis of the capitalist farmer: towards a Marxist accounting history of the origins of the English agricultural revolution[END_REF][START_REF] Chiapello | Accounting and the birth of the notion of capitalism[END_REF][START_REF] Miller | The multiplying machine[END_REF][START_REF] Miller | Genealogies of calculation[END_REF]. The main social scientists interested in accounting and Capitalism have stressed that they had been resting upon religion as a common base since the Middle Ages [START_REF] Aqbal | Introduction to Islamic Finance: Theory and Practice[END_REF][START_REF] Carruthers | Accounting for rationality: Double-Entry Bookkeeping and the rhetoric of economic rationality[END_REF][START_REF] Derks | Religion, capitalism and the rise of double-entry bookkeeping[END_REF][START_REF] Gambling | Business and Accounting Ethics in Islam[END_REF][START_REF] Rodinson | Islam and Capitalism[END_REF][START_REF] Sombart | The Jews and modern capitalism[END_REF][START_REF] Sombart | The quintessence of Capitalism[END_REF][START_REF] Taqi-Usmani | An introduction to Islamic finance (Arab and Islamic Laws)[END_REF][START_REF] Weber | The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism[END_REF][START_REF] Weber | Economy and Society[END_REF]. These authors argue that Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Islam and later Protestantism(s) have created accounting as a means of recording and coordinating trade activities, money lent to European monarchs, inventory resources available in monasteries and managing offertories to deities. Until societies became post-modern and secularised, they have been driven by religious prescriptions.

In the Middle Ages already, Islamic and Catholic merchants accounted for economic transactions "in the name of God" [START_REF] Carruthers | Accounting for rationality: Double-Entry Bookkeeping and the rhetoric of economic rationality[END_REF], while in the nineteenth century Jewish and Protestant tradespersons kept such books "in the name of God and profit" [START_REF] Freytag | Soll und Haben[END_REF][START_REF] Maltby | Accounting and the soul of the middle-class: Gustav Freytag's Soll und Haben[END_REF]. In the latter cases, profit accumulation was considered a moral practice. In other words, as [START_REF] Weber | The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism[END_REF] and [START_REF] Sombart | The Jews and modern capitalism[END_REF][START_REF] Sombart | The quintessence of Capitalism[END_REF] note, capital accumulation was a delineation of faith. What they observed in Judaism and Protestantism has been noted in Roman Catholicism [START_REF] Hallman | Italian Cardinals, Reform and the Church as Property[END_REF][START_REF] Michaud | L'Eglise et l'argent sous l'Ancien Régime -Les receveurs généraux du clergé de France aux XVIè -XVIIIè siècles[END_REF] and Islam [START_REF] Rodinson | Islam and Capitalism[END_REF] too. Such practices were enabled through the development of calculative practices by the clergy and religious people. To demonstrate God's boundlessness, Pascal developed the mathematical theory of infinite and limits as well as the first computing machine, following Arab mathematicians who had invented calculative sciences through numbers (namely 0) through arithmetics and geometry [START_REF] Rodinson | Islam and Capitalism[END_REF]. As extensions of faith, numbers and calculative threads were used to "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's"1 , Caesar being concerned about political and economic life, while God judges moral and faithful daily conduct 2 . Beyond mere economic rationality, in the act of giving accounts, the individual and the organisation reveal the morality of their conduct [START_REF] Mckernan | Accounting, love and justice[END_REF].

In this paper, we regard accounting as a comprehensive process driven by a worldview resulting in categorising any situation into two: debits/credits always equalling each other [START_REF] Gambling | Accounting for rituals[END_REF][START_REF] Hopwood | Accounting and everyday life: An introduction[END_REF]. We consider here the core of accounting lies in indentifying items received for a purpose (credit) and the use made thereof (debit), both counterparts equalling each other. In other words, we consider accounting starts from double entry bookkeeping for those reasons. Borrowed from the Ancient Greeks' twofold view of the world, this understanding of accounting has reconciled abstract items coming from the world of ideas with their physical manifestation in practical life [START_REF] Derks | Religion, capitalism and the rise of double-entry bookkeeping[END_REF]. Stepwise, accounting has been narrowed down as the equalisation of resources and use made thereof, summarised as "we own a particular amount because at some other time we have given or owe an equivalent amount" (Aho, 2005, p.72).

Balance of credits and debits can only be observed through formal representations, i.e. written records. As giving an account of and account-ing for something embrace different realities, accounting comprises of numerical and discursive threads enabling to name and count the features of balanced credits and debits. Discursive skills enable to name and frame what is to be accounted for, whereas calculative capabilities support quantification and measurement (Quattrone, 2009, p.86). Items to be accounted for are first named and then transformed into numbers through working units reflecting what is expectedly balanced and evaluation models revealing this.

We consider accounting a practice situated in the social context in which it operates [START_REF] Burchell | The roles of accounting in organizations and society[END_REF][START_REF] Burchell | Accounting in its social context: Towards a history of value added in the United Kingdom[END_REF][START_REF] Hopwood | Accounting and everyday life: An introduction[END_REF][START_REF] Laughlin | Accounting in its Social Context: An Analysis of the Accounting Systems of the Church of England[END_REF]. Here, social context is revealed religion. As religion is broad, we offer a compared analysis of four social contexts apparently similar and explicate the extent to which they differ. Thereby, we bring additional evidence of the influence of social context on accounting systems.

Accounting and religion as practice

Religion encompasses individual perceptions [START_REF] Durkheim | The elementary forms of religious life[END_REF][START_REF] Lévinas | Otherwise than being or beyond essence[END_REF][START_REF] Lévinas | God, death and time[END_REF], collective constructions and normative views. Individual encounters with the Holy are underpinned by belief in deities (Faith) steadily capable of explaining the world order (Faithfulness). When these convictions are shared by several people, a congregation is informally created, in which devotees recognise the clergy as a legitimate authority qualified for designing and managing the Religious Beliefs System [START_REF] Derrida | Foi et savoir[END_REF][START_REF] Latour | Jubiler ou les tourments de la parole religieuse[END_REF], norm issuance and coordination of local practices being parts of their administrative tasks [START_REF] Durkheim | The elementary forms of religious life[END_REF][START_REF] Durkheim | Division of labour in society[END_REF][START_REF] Eliade | The Sacred & The Profane -The Nature of Religion -The Significance of Religious Myth, Symbolism, Ritual within Life and Culture[END_REF][START_REF] Weber | Economy and Society[END_REF]. The four religions observed in this paper are those of the Book, which is here extensively understood. Basically, the Book is the Old Testament, i.e. the Torah and later pieces. In Judaism, the Book comprises of the Mishnah and Talmud, these theological discussions being as sacred as God's word. Later, in Christianity, the Book comprehends the Old and New Testaments. Later, when Islam appeared, Angel Gabriel rewrote the Bible and revealed the Qur'an to mankind. The three Monotheisms have as common base a Book in which God revealed Himself to mankind through prophets and angels.

Accounting and religion will be treated as practices for two reasons, one being topical, while the other is methodological. First, practice theory reads the most appropriate to study day-today activities. Practice theory was developed by social scientists dealing with the construction of a religious habitus [START_REF] Bourdieu | Outline of a theory of practice[END_REF][START_REF] Certeau (de) | The practice of everyday life[END_REF][START_REF] Certeau (de) | Heterologies: Discourse on the Other[END_REF]. It has then been used to study day-to-day management accounting practices, such as menu construction in a restaurant chain [START_REF] Ahrens | The structuration of legitimate performance measures and management: day-to-day contests of accountability in a U.K. restaurant chain[END_REF]2007) or new product development [START_REF] Jørgensen | Accounting and strategising: a case study from new product development[END_REF]. As this paper crosses day-to-day accounts and day-to-day religious activities, practice theory seem particularly appropriate. Second, accounting thinking and religion have differentiated conceptual bases. Therefore, in order to study both jointly, a common base is necessary, which can be found is the notion of practice. In practice theory, a practice is usually defined as a bundle of common understandings, routines, rules and teleoaffective structures [START_REF] Barnes | Practice as collective action[END_REF][START_REF] Bourdieu | Outline of a theory of practice[END_REF][START_REF] Certeau (de) | The practice of everyday life[END_REF]1988;[START_REF] Coulter | Human practices and the observability of the 'macro-social[END_REF][START_REF] Lounsbury | New practice creation: an institutional perspective on innovation[END_REF]Schatzki, 2000a;b;2005). The next paragraphs show the conceptual common foundation of both through explicit routines and rules, whereas common understandings and teleoaffective structures differentiate these two social phenomena.

Common understandings of how to do things are first the knowledge that individuals have of the way of performing actions, be it explicit or implicit. But they also encompass the interpretation they can make of knowledge and the way they can translate it into actions. However, owing to particularities of the context, practices may be altered, as common understandings might change from one actor to another (consciously or non-consciously), different rules might be issued, while ends might be emphasized differently (Schatzki, 2005, p.475). Therefore, rules are issued to impose a normative way of doing things within the practice. Doctrines, guidelines and other norms are intentionally developed and enforced to make individuals comply with the structure's overall views through a normalised array of understandings, desires, beliefs, expectations, emotions and ultimately actions (Schatzki, 2005, p.481). Daily application of these rules rests upon a habitus consisting of the exteriorisation of interiorised knowledge through routines. Rules and routines specify correct or at least acceptable behaviour for the practice to be perpetuated. This normative scheme is supplemented by teleoaffective structures encompassing ends and projects whither the practice is addressed, and combined with the emotions usually expressed in the pursuit of that practice. Actually, as appropriations may vary, arrangements are necessary to constitute a practice: people make confront their understandings with those of others and readjust themselves accordingly until their behaviour is acceptable (Schatzki, 2000a;2005).

Accounting thinking can be viewed as a practice, in which common understandings are the labels and threads used to tell the story of resources and use made thereof. In other words, the dual logic of accounting could be considered a commonly shared understanding revealed through the notion of double entry bookkeeping. Routines can be traced through the procedures used to construct reports and disclosure periodicity. It is commonplace to consider that rules are GAAPs or the procedures issued and enforced through management control systems. Lastly, teleoaffective structures deployed in accounting thinking can be found in pride to witness one's capabilities and actualisations (re use of resources, outcomes, conduct, etc.) Religion also can be conceptualised as a practice, in which common understandings can be found in faith, viz. the definition of deities' capabilities. In other words, common understandings can be manifested in the religious belief system. In that practice, routines are manifested in rituals developed and followed to pray, praise and honour deities, viz. liturgy and translation into everyday activities. Given the interplay between laity and clergy, the latter issuing norms about the interpretation of deities' requirements, rules can be found in the congregation/denomination theology, which is the normative science of divinity. Lastly, teleoaffective structures entailed in the social construction of religion as practice are divine grace perception and salvation, i.e. the God's unbounded love revealed to the believer. The figure above stresses both the common conceptual base and main differences between accounting and religion. The core of their common base lies in routines and rules deployed, accounting procedures and periodicity resembling religious rituals [START_REF] Gambling | Magic, accounting and morale[END_REF]1987). On the other hand, GAAPs, management control systems and theology are issued and enforced by legitimate authorities compelling other practice members to conform hither. The clergy operates as God's managers [START_REF] Kreander | God's fund managers: A critical study of stock market investment practices of the Church of England and UK Methodists[END_REF]) issuing a doctrine and enforcing regulations re the Lord's will. In other contexts, GAAPs can be issued and enforced by governments to ensure that managers will comply, while management control systems are designed to make individual goals convergent, consistent and congruent [START_REF] De Haas | Demonstrating the effect of the participative dialogue: participation in designing the management control system[END_REF]. Despite such overlapping of accounting and religion, common understandings and teleoaffective structures differ. Whereas common understandings in accounting practice are manifestly driven by economic rationality (labels and tools), they are resting on emotions in religion. Accordingly, the teleoaffective structures erected also differ: accounting rests on proud to witness one's capabilities and possibly morals, whereas religion reposes on salvation and divine grace. In that context, we read theological debates on accounts rendered to God to understand the moral and spiritual foundations of accounting.

Dataset and methodology

In this section, we explicate how we collected and analysed data to answer our research question. First, we clarify our positioning in historiography and history of theological thought. Second, we stress how the practice framework developed early on drives the interpretation of those texts.

Historiography of theological debates on accounting

To answer our research question, we rest our study on a historiographic analysis of the way the four religions have revealed accounting thinking to mankind. We will not base our analysis on historical archives, but on interpretations made thereof by historians, sociologists or theologians. Moreover, as we are interested in how spirituality has upheld accounting thinking, we deliberately consider actual practices beyond the scope of our study.

We collected data reflecting accounting as a mode of thinking applicable to any everyday activity, even if it is apparently insignificant. We collected three types of data: first passages from the Holy Scriptures relating to accounting, secondly theological debates about interpretations of God's word, and third recent theological debates re ancient disputes. As such disputes arouse at Reformation time, we focus on mainstream theologies handling accounts of day-to-day life in the Renaissance. Protestantism emerged as the offshoot of accounting disputes with Catholic practices, which, in turn, were reinforced by the Jesuits. As a reaction, Protestant theologies turned back to the Jewish roots of Christianity, while Islamic scientific discoveries facilitated European accounting practices. As accounting issues in dayto-day life seem to be critical in theological debates, we leave aside prior studies dealing with financial accounts in Judaism3 , Catholic monasteries4 , Protestant denominations5 , or Islamic organisations6 .

Despite difficulties in gathering homogeneous and reliable texts, we were able to identify regularities, convergences and trends in accounting-thinking-based spiritualities. Difficulties were as follows. In Judaism, rabbinic tradition is mainly oral, rare texts being written in Hebrew and deliberately not translated into other languages. Eventually, in Judaism, learning the Hebraic language and reading original texts is part of the believers' spiritual journey [START_REF] Lévinas | Difficult freedom -essays on Judaism[END_REF][START_REF] Lévinas | Nine Talmudic Readings[END_REF][START_REF] Neusner | The way of Torah -an introduction to Judaism[END_REF]1993). Although a similar phenomenon is observable for Islam, commentaries and theological debates have flourished since the nineties, which facilitated our study. In sum, our dataset comprehends of publications in theology, history of religious thought and historical surveys on applied spirituality in the four religions7 . In addition to these texts, we collected data from informal conversations with ministers: rabbis, imams, priests and pastors. We also attended various theological seminars to be aware of contemporary disputes about the way accounting thinking was revealed in the Book.

Analysing theology through practice lens

Empirical evidence is a synthesised restitution of theological and historiographical debates re the Monotheisms underpinned by accounting thinking. To make the story clear for the reader, we articulate here the points on which commentators seem to agree and emphasise as the intertwining of accounting with religion. Accordingly, our approach provides a synthesis of mainstream approaches to the revelation of accounting through the religions of the Book. Deliberately, we will consider that themes on which theologians and historians profoundly disagree are beyond the scope of our study. Evidently, our synthesis is addressed to the layperson, religious people considering such observations common knowledge.

Moreover, to make our approach systematic and intelligible to the reader, we re-wrote the outcomes of theological and historiographical debates adopting the practice framework developed early on. As for accounting and religion, this will facilitate comparisons between the four religious contexts studied. Eventually, we expect to identify regularities and also specificities for each religion from the story written. Although we do not focus on how individuals in their everyday lives actualise accounting spirituality, we consider the latter a practice in Schatzki's (2000aSchatzki's ( , b, 2005) ) terms. Indeed, we will rely on the four-dimensional model of a practice to understand how accounting thinking and the four religions have overlapped. Heuristically, we will observe each religion as a bundle of common understandings, routines, rules and teleoaffective structures informed with the Holy Scriptures and theological debates. The table below summarises our analytical scheme and does not pretend to reduce Judaism, Catholicism, Islam and Protestantism to an array. As this study is concerned about understanding how accounting thinking has been revealed in the Book, we will fill the sixteen cells of our template with the very specificities of revelation for each of the four religions. Filling the cells should provide the reader with an intelligible motif and recurrent theme. Common understandings re God's capabilities, realisations and expectations/requirements will probably vary from one religion to the other. We expect the honouring, praying and praising of God (routines) to vary too because of differentiated modes of revelation and theologies (rules) underpinned by differentiated conceptions of grace and salvation (teleoaffective structures).

Judaism

Accounting revealed in the religions of the Book

In this section, we explicate how accounting as thinking and practice is revealed through the religions of the Book. To this end, we present the contribution of each religion with respect to their chronological revelation to Man. To have a common and comparable base, we present each of them through four stages: common understandings of God and revelation, teleoaffective structures re salvation, rules such as issued and debated by clergy members and theologians and accounting routines upholding revelation and subsequent ways to salvation.

We then conclude on the main issues for accounting raised by the religion observed. Unsurprisingly, we will first deal with accounting for the Law in Judaism, then for the Original Sin in Roman Catholicism. We moderate the argument through references to Protestantism (section 3) before introducing accounting for the Sharia in Islam, although the latter appeared before the former. In fact, we hereby consider Protestantism and Roman Catholicism two practicalities of Christianity different enough to deserve separate treatments.

Accounting for the Law in Judaism

In the rabbinic literature, most authors agree that common understandings relate to God's identity, revelation and commandments. After millennia of paganism, God revealed the Tablets to Moses on Mount Sinai. All commentators agree that the core commandment guiding the understanding of God's identity, capabilities and will is the honouring of His uniqueness, idolatry being the main offense against God (e.g. [START_REF] Copeland | That Law which calls us away from mystifying rapture to religious responsibility[END_REF][START_REF] Kaplan | Israel under the moundain: Emmanuel Levinas on freedom and constraint in the Revelation of the Torah[END_REF][START_REF] Neusner | The Mishna in philosophical context and out of canonical bounds[END_REF]Schechter, 1894a;b;[START_REF] Ward | The God of philosophers and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob[END_REF]). Subsequently, no representation of God was allowed, Who was not to be personified through any icons, idolatry being the utmost sin against Him [START_REF] Ross | The primacy of the personalist concept of God in Jewish Thought[END_REF]. At the same time as the Lord gave Moses the Tablets, He revealed to His people His law and counterparts through a covenant [START_REF] Urbach | The sages, their beliefs and concepts[END_REF]. The people of Israel were to honour Him and were in turn rewarded or punished in this life as well as in the next life [START_REF] Neusner | The way of Torah -an introduction to Judaism[END_REF]1993;Schechter, 1895b;[START_REF] Schechter | Some aspects of rabbinic theology VI. The Torah in its aspects of Law[END_REF][START_REF] Urbach | The sages, their beliefs and concepts[END_REF]. Such common understandings have been driven by the consciousness of being chosen by God to reveal Him to the world. The rabbinic belief in the election of Israel finds its clearest expression in a prayer commencing as follows (see Schechter, 1894b):

"Thou hast chosen us from all peoples; thou hast loved us and taken pleasure in us, and hast exalted us above all tongues; thou hast sanctified us by thy commandments and brought us near unto thy service; O our King, thou hast called us by thy great and holy name"

Eventually, Moses was chosen by God to free the people of Israel from Egyptian enslavement. Since its Exodus from Egypt, the Jewish people have been considered saved by God and His witnesses worldwide [START_REF] Elman | Argument for the sake of Heaven: "The mind of the Talmud[END_REF][START_REF] Satlow | And on the Earth you shall sleep": Talmud Torah and rabbinic ascetism[END_REF]. After Moses died, a Messiah had been expected, whose coming should reflect salvation completion. It is commonly understood that honouring God's Law expressed through the Ten Commandments and the Sabbath collectively and individually is the sole way to salvation 8 [START_REF] Elman | Argument for the sake of Heaven: "The mind of the Talmud[END_REF][START_REF] Jaffee | A Rabbinic ontology of the written and spoken word: on discipleship, transformative knowledge, and the living texts of oral Torah[END_REF][START_REF] Lévinas | Nine Talmudic Readings[END_REF][START_REF] Satlow | And on the Earth you shall sleep": Talmud Torah and rabbinic ascetism[END_REF]Schechter, 1895a;b;[START_REF] Schechter | Some aspects of rabbinic theology VI. The Torah in its aspects of Law[END_REF]. These teleoaffective structures are summarised as follows:

man stands in the service of God, each part of his body being entrusted with the execution of its respective functions (Urbach, 1996, pp.355-361). Then, David came and reduced them to 11, Isaiah to 6, Micah to 3, Isaiah to 2 and lastly Amos and Habakkuk to one: seek the Lord and live by faith. Ultimately, the Tanna of the school of Elijah exclaims: "Let man fulfil the commandments of the Torah with joy and then they will be counted to him as righteousness"(emphasis added), which opens to accounting records and procedures as routines in Jewish thought [START_REF] Cohen | The classifcation of the Law in the Mishneh Torah[END_REF][START_REF] Schechter | Some aspects of rabbinic theology VI. The Torah in its aspects of Law[END_REF][START_REF] Sombart | The Jews and modern capitalism[END_REF][START_REF] Urbach | The sages, their beliefs and concepts[END_REF].

Judaism has suggested that believers should practice metaphoric books of accounts, wherein faith in God is recorded as for credit and should be balanced through actual conduct, the latter reflecting mankind's indebtedness to the Lord [START_REF] Sombart | The Jews and modern capitalism[END_REF]. Actual conduct and expected duties performed would expectedly match. As rabbinic literature states, the believer is bound to God through a direct relationship resulting in them identifying on their own what God expects. In Jewish theologies, faith offered by God should lead the believer to conduct him/herself righteously (viz. consistently with God's expectations).

Whether one is accounted 'righteous' or 'wicked' depends on the balance of commands performed and commands neglected. Obviously this necessitates the keeping of accounts, and each man therefore has his own, in which his words and his deeds, event the words spoken in jest, are all carefully registered. According to one authority (Ruth Rabba, 33a) the prophet Elijah keeps these accounts, according to another (Esther Rabba, 86a) the duty is assigned to angels. Every man has thus an account in heaven: Israel a particularly large one (Sifra,446). And one of the ways of preparing for death is to have your account ready […] It is difficult to perceive that the keeping of these accounts was no easy matter (Sombart, 1911, pp.144-145).

Effectively, "man is rewarded for duties performed and punished for duties neglected, the rewards and punishments being received partly in this world and partly in the next world" (Sombart, 1911, p.144). Such religious accounts are underpinned by the fact that the God of the prophets is a responsive God making moral demands that humans are free to obey or disobey and reacting to human actions in judgement through rewards and retributions (Ward, 1999, p.164). The believer records his life on a daily basis and keeps them secret but ready for the Judgement Day. A twofold relationship to God is revealed through these books of accounts. First, in this life, the believer is rewarded when commanded duties were completed; the individual is in peace and acknowledged by other community members as a righteous person (Urbach, 1979, p.380). Conversely, if duties are not performed, man is punished on earth through public revelation of guilty conduct and quietness absence (Urbach, 1979, p.373).

In addition to such counterparts, on Judgement Day, the individual encounters God and the regularity of the accounts is verified by the Lord, which leads to two verifications: regularity and contents. If accounts are not fair to the actual conduct of life, the self will be punished in the next life. For recollection, God is omniscient and cannot be cheated: He can identify such fairness easily. If accounts are fair, reward becomes possible but is enabled only if the accounts are balanced. Balance or imbalance is appraised on the basis of biographic accounts, commandments and performance being compared. In case of imbalance, the believer may sincerely repent him/herself and be rewarded for acknowledging poor conduct and being fair onwards (Urbach, 1979, p.466). The rabbinic literature insists on the privacy of such books and the prohibition of any intrusion between God and the believer [START_REF] Cohen | The classifcation of the Law in the Mishneh Torah[END_REF], as nobody can know the value of a commandment, but God in person [START_REF] Costa | L'au-delà et la résurrection dans la littérature rabbinique ancienne[END_REF].

Faith is given by God and is recorded as for credit. By faith, the believer must fulfil duties ordered by the Lord and accounts for them as debit. Fulfilled duties balance commandments from faith. Book balance is rewarded by God, rewards being net result and therefore accounted for credit (Urbach, 1979, p.466;Sombart, 1911, p.144). Unfulfilled duties being missing, faith has no counterpart. A dual mechanism is noticed. First, unfulfilled duties are recorded as an offence to God diminishing value to Him, viz. as negative debit (wicked conduct) and are compensated through retributions from God (recorded as for credit).

Retributions are expected in this life, for the offender to have a chance to rebalance the account. If missing duties are not performed at all, when the Jew dies, God punishes him/her in the next life. The figure below summarises the contents of biographic accounts in Judaism.

Debit Credit

Performed duties (Unfulfilled obligations)

Faith in God

Retributions and rewards in this life Retributions and rewards in the next life Figure 3. Accounting for the Law in Judaism Judaism reveals four issues relevant for contemporary accounting as practice. First, the notion of balance between commandments revealed by God through the Tablets and actual conduct stresses double entry thinking. Everything, every item, every activity, every amount of money has a counterpart, nothing existing per se. This leads to the second issue regarding evaluation models. It is obvious that faithfulness and divine commandments cannot be known, measured or evaluated [START_REF] Derrida | Specters of Marx: the state of the debt, the work of mourning, and the New International[END_REF], which reveals the vanity of any evaluation model, these operating at best as theologies or sets of quasi-religious beliefs [START_REF] Kamuf | Accounterability. Textual practice[END_REF]. Therefore, and consistent with rabbinic literature, only the believer can faithfully identify what the Lord expects from them, no intermediary being legitimate to articulate any doctrine of God's will. Third, as individual accounts are not subjected to any human control, God will exert His on Judgement Day. The two books will be examined by God, Who will either reward the righteous or punish the wicked. Faithfulness can be found in the fairness of accounts and in the balance of commandments ordered by God and those actually honoured. God being omniscient, cheating is impossible, and books of accounts appear as a driver of personal life (Schechter, 1895b). Correlatively, reconciliation of mankind with divinity through autobiographic accounts leads the latter to serve as drivers for the morals of people knowing that they will stand trial before God.

Accounting for Original Sin in Roman Catholicism

In Christian theologies, it is commonplace to consider God revealed to the world through three features: the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. In Aquinas' theology, God is beyond essence and understanding, which requires mediation between Him and the self [START_REF] Torrell | Initiation à Saint Thomas d'Aquin[END_REF]. Eventually, in Roman Catholic theologies, such mediation is an offshoot of Original Sin: Adam and Eve ate the apple from the knowledge tree and thereby expected to know and equal God 10 . Therefore, Christian theologies agree on that clergy is the sole habilitated to approach God and should interfere between Him and believers, the first intermediary being Jesus, sent to clean mankind's sins (Cohen, 1980a;[START_REF] Harrison | Original Sin and the problem of knowledge in Early Modern Europe[END_REF][START_REF] Norman | Regress and the doctrine of epistemic Original Sin[END_REF][START_REF] Torrell | Initiation à Saint Thomas d'Aquin[END_REF].

The sinning nature of mankind leads Catholic theologians to consider that teleaffective structures re divine grace and salvation are not acquired, believers being to work for it.

Effectively, people are justified by their acts, evil leading to Hell [START_REF] Enfer | [END_REF], good work to Paradise [START_REF]Le Paradis[END_REF] and repentance for poor conduct to Purgatory before God decides to send the guilty to Hell or Paradise [START_REF] Enfer | [END_REF]. Moreover, Jansenist theologians consider that divine grace is not granted to all, God selecting amongst men those who shall be saved [START_REF] Pascal | Ecrits sur la grâce[END_REF]. As nobody knows who will be saved, demonstrations of faith through acts should be made: people bet that they might be saved. At best, they are and at worst, they go to Purgatory in lieu of Hell [START_REF] Pascal | Pensées[END_REF]. Considered sinners in nature, believers are expected to be justified through confession of sins, subsequent repentance (Saint-Augustin, 1637) and manifestation of willingness to belong to God's people through the Holy Sacraments iterated in the whole course of life [START_REF] Case | Authority for the Sacraments[END_REF][START_REF] Christie | Church and Sacraments[END_REF][START_REF] Panofsky | Two Roger Problems: the donor of the hague lamentation and the date of the altarpiece of the seven Sacraments[END_REF].

Rules driving justification were based on the notion of a path to God [START_REF] Pascal | Pensées[END_REF] consisting of seven sacraments, each of them characterising a stage in Christian life. Eventually, seven days after birth, children were to be baptised, baptism meaning entry into God's community. Seven years later, by the age of reason, communion was received, whereby the child accepts God as Lord and Jesus Christ as saviour. Seven years later, as teenagers, they receive confirmation, whereby they iterate the prior oath. When they become adults, marriage is celebrating by a priest or a deacon, some receiving ordination as the fifth sacrament.

Ultimately, short before passing away, last rites are received. During their entire life, believers receive Eucharist in the course of the service, whereby they weekly iterate faith in their Saviour and Lord. To be allowed to receive Eucharist, believers were to confess their sins, penance being part of the rule (Saint-Augustin, 1637)11 .

Although medievalists traditionally acknowledge that the Roman Catholic Church has accounted for the Original Sin through sacramental and confessional accounting, they tend to remain elusive re procedures adopted [START_REF] Aho | Confession and bookkeeping -the religious, moral, and rhetorical roots of modern accounting[END_REF]Joannidès, in press). However, accounting scholars have focused on records in the books practiced by the Catholic Church [START_REF] Aho | Confession and bookkeeping -the religious, moral, and rhetorical roots of modern accounting[END_REF][START_REF] Hoskin | Accounting and the examination: A genealogy of disciplinary power[END_REF][START_REF] Quattrone | Accounting for God: accounting and accountability practices in the Society of Jesus (Italy, XVI-XVII centuries)[END_REF]2009). Nonetheless, the meaning of accounting figures in Roman Catholicism differs from that of Judaism. Whereas spirituality in Judaism relies on individual accounts, Catholic spirituality has dominated the entire life of its flock by confessional bookkeeping since the High Middle Ages [START_REF] Aho | Confession and bookkeeping -the religious, moral, and rhetorical roots of modern accounting[END_REF]. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church as the earliest social institution developed double-entry-accounting whereby souls were accounted for [START_REF] Hoskin | Accounting and the examination: A genealogy of disciplinary power[END_REF][START_REF] Quattrone | Accounting for God: accounting and accountability practices in the Society of Jesus (Italy, XVI-XVII centuries)[END_REF]2009). Technically speaking, working units were the Holy Sacraments associated with the major events of Christian life: births, marriages, deaths, baptisms, confession and communion. Each person was accounted for as a soul. As such, it was to have some of the sacraments as a counterpart. In the double-entry-accounting system of the Church, every member of the community was to have his counterparts. At every age in life, the corresponding sacrament was due. Absence was considered a sin, and the account of life was unbalanced [START_REF] Aho | Confession and bookkeeping -the religious, moral, and rhetorical roots of modern accounting[END_REF], which required rebalances through indulgences raised by God's representatives, viz. clergy members [START_REF] Quattrone | Accounting for God: accounting and accountability practices in the Society of Jesus (Italy, XVI-XVII centuries)[END_REF]. Eventually, if the account happened to be unbalanced, s/he was to penitent. A fine was required for rebalancing the account. On the very short run, the guilty person was to say a given amount of prayers or to pay a fine for evil conduct.

In the second book of accounts, sins were recorded. Again, to a sin corresponded an indulgence expressed in monetary terms [START_REF] Quattrone | Accounting for God: accounting and accountability practices in the Society of Jesus (Italy, XVI-XVII centuries)[END_REF]. In practice, the believer selfaccounted for one's conduct on a daily basis and submitted his biographical records to the priest, the sole person capable of appraising them and saying whether they might be pardoned.

As sin were viewed as destroyers of God's creation, they were accounted for as negative values in debit records. Subsequently, rebalancing the account required indulgences amounting higher than sins themselves [START_REF] Aho | Confession and bookkeeping -the religious, moral, and rhetorical roots of modern accounting[END_REF]. On penance time, the counterparts of sins are defined and paid, if any. The keeping of such personal accounts followed clerical procedures and language.

Penance is required of all believers beyond the Ages of discretion at least once a year, preferably more often. This, with a priest […] It consists of three parts: contrition, confession proper, and satisfaction […] After rehearsing their case, penitents must approach the sitting priest and in the sight of all -the private booth would come later -clearly, frankly and humbly disclose their sins; not, it must be emphasized, their 'sins in general only', but 'one by one', according to their species and number, situating each in the circumstances that occasioned it (Aho, 2005, pp.19-20).

The priest appraised conduct compliance with the church laws and the regularity of subsequent accounting records. The sole appraisal of the behaviour of churchgoers, balanced accounts and subsequent rewards (booking a seat in Heaven) and punishments (promise of Purgatory or Hell) were means of maintaining the sacred sanctuary. Effectively, the universalistic and holistic heuristic of the Roman Catholic Church required homogeneous records and application of the doctrine worldwide. Therefore, the Holy Siege issued standards for the recording of souls, sins and sacraments: souls were accounted for as credit (given by God), whereas debit records encompassed the seven sacraments [START_REF] Aho | Confession and bookkeeping -the religious, moral, and rhetorical roots of modern accounting[END_REF], sins and corresponding indulgences [START_REF] Aho | Confession and bookkeeping -the religious, moral, and rhetorical roots of modern accounting[END_REF][START_REF] Hoskin | Accounting and the examination: A genealogy of disciplinary power[END_REF][START_REF] Quattrone | Accounting for God: accounting and accountability practices in the Society of Jesus (Italy, XVI-XVII centuries)[END_REF]2009). As sins were an offence against the soul offered by God, they were accounted for as negative, which required rebalance through subsequent indulgence. In sum, at each stage of Catholic life, the result of the balance revealed individual faithfulness. In territories, cardinals were to enforce the accounting system, whereas bishops in dioceses were to compel congregations to everyday application by priests [START_REF] Hallman | Italian Cardinals, Reform and the Church as Property[END_REF]. All congregations were to record the same books and report them to the upper hierarchical level for approbation. Like Judaism, Roman Catholicism reveals the notion of biographic accounts based on balanced double entry records. Listing sins and confessing them to the priest, who acts in God's stead, should lead to provide him with fair accounts. As in Judaism, giving an account contributes to constructing the moral person, while publicity in sacrament accounting reveals a practicality for rewards or retributions on earth suggested in Judaism. If sacraments are missing, other Christians can know it and blame the guilty person, which should lead to selfcontrol through subjectivation of the rule [START_REF] Hoskin | Accounting and the examination: A genealogy of disciplinary power[END_REF][START_REF] Quattrone | Accounting for God: accounting and accountability practices in the Society of Jesus (Italy, XVI-XVII centuries)[END_REF]. Roman Catholicism reveals the earliest international reporting standards, such as conceived of, enforced and practices: all congregations worldwide have kept the same records for centuries.

Accounting for blessings in Protestantism

Protestantism was delivered in the 16 th century as an offshoot of the Reformation already intuited by Jan Hus' (1373-1415) distance vis-à-vis sin accounting and subsequent indulgences. Hus' sentence to death for heresy became the symbol of contests of clerical authority by Henry VIII, Luther and Calvin in the following two centuries [START_REF] Smahel | Révolution hussite: ue anomalie historique[END_REF]. In particular, Martin Luther published 95 theses, in which he denounced the overemphasis on Original Sin and Fall in Catholic theology and promoted faith alone, which decried the existence of indulgences. Moreover, he called to rely on God's love [START_REF] Berman | The spiritualization of secular law: the impact of the Lutheran Reformation[END_REF][START_REF] Gerrish | Discerning the Body: Sign and Reality in Luther's Controversy with the Swiss[END_REF], which Calvin proclaimed too [START_REF] Allegretti | In All This Love Will Be the Best Guide": John Calvin on the Christian's Resort to the Secular Legal System[END_REF][START_REF] Dowey | Continental Reformation: works of general interest. Studies in Calvin and Calvinism since[END_REF][START_REF] Potter | The "Whole Office of the Law" in the Theology of John Calvin[END_REF][START_REF] Vincent | La Rationalité herméneutique du discours théologique de Calvin / The Hermeneutic Rational of Calvin 's Theological Discourse[END_REF]. Effectively, it is commonly understood in various forms of Protestantism12 that God sent Jesus Christ to expiate mankind's sins qua their saviour inspired by the Holy Spirit. Thence, Trinity, in lieu of meaning the need for intermediaries between God and the self, was considered the visible Revelation to mankind [START_REF] Nischan | The Exorcism Controversy and Baptism in the late Reformation[END_REF][START_REF] Preserved | The methods of Reformation interpreters of the Bible[END_REF][START_REF] Reinburg | Liturgy and the laity in late Medieval and Reformation France[END_REF][START_REF] Ritter | Why the Reformation occurred in Germany[END_REF][START_REF] Schilling | The Reformation in Hanseatic Cities[END_REF].

Clearly, in Protestant theologies, Original Sin is not considered the central issue and is subsequently not accounted for. In fact, Reformation insufflators, especially Luther and Henry VIII, have strongly contested the legitimacy of sacrament accounting. Eventually, they contested that marriage should be accounted for once only and suggested that divorce would be allowed, which would enable Protestants to receive marriage anew [START_REF] Haigh | The continuity of Catholicism in the English Reformation[END_REF][START_REF] Rex | The crisis of obedience: God's word and Henry's Reformation[END_REF]. Moreover, they considered that nothing in the Scriptures prohibits clerical marriage and supported incompatibility with clergy ordination [START_REF] Carlson | Clerical marriage and the English Reformation[END_REF][START_REF] Fudge | Incest and lust in Luther's marriage: theology and morality in Reformation polemics[END_REF][START_REF] Yost | The Reformation defence of clerical marriage in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI[END_REF]. Correlatively, Luther contested the divine revelation of indulgences for two reasons. First, such practices are absent from the Scriptures, the Canon Law operating as an undue substitute for them. Second, divine revelation of the amount was denounced as an arbitrary practice. As God is revealed to the self only, external evaluations of conduct and faithfulness should not be tolerated [START_REF] Ritter | Why the Reformation occurred in Germany[END_REF][START_REF] Schilling | The Reformation in Hanseatic Cities[END_REF][START_REF] Swanson | Interpreting the Reformation[END_REF]). Understandably, central in Protestantism is justification by faith and not by actions 13 .

In Protestant theologies, but Calvinist, salvation as teleoaffective structure is considered given a priori and gratuitously, the sole condition to be touched being that the self accepts God as Lord and Jesus Christ as saviour. God draws a plan for every self, following it leading to success and holiness [START_REF] Weber | The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism[END_REF][START_REF] Wesley | Wesley's notes on the Bible[END_REF][START_REF] Wesley | The standard sermons of John Wesley[END_REF]. To meet the Lord's requirements, the individual must respond to His calling through vocational work (Beruf: calling, vocation, profession, Weber, 1921, p.125). If s/he works well, God rewards him/her through the compensation received. The self only must seek to know what God decided and preserve confidence in Jesus Christ resulting from actual faith and remain thankful for the grace and blessings received. The individual is justified twice: first through divine grace and second through faith. Although Calvinist theology considers predestination to salvation or nonsalvation, believers are encouraged to conduct themselves by faith, as if they were saved, explanation being close to Pascal's bet [START_REF] Allegretti | In All This Love Will Be the Best Guide": John Calvin on the Christian's Resort to the Secular Legal System[END_REF][START_REF] Dowey | Continental Reformation: works of general interest. Studies in Calvin and Calvinism since[END_REF][START_REF] Potter | The "Whole Office of the Law" in the Theology of John Calvin[END_REF][START_REF] Vincent | La Rationalité herméneutique du discours théologique de Calvin / The Hermeneutic Rational of Calvin 's Theological Discourse[END_REF]. If the individual is saved, faith is the righteous counterpart. On the contrary, if s/he is not chosen by God to be saved, believing in His love does not endanger life.

Protestant theologies encourage to summarise faith as identification of God's blessings, which believers are encouraged to count. In turn, once God's blessings have been identified by faith, the Protestant is encouraged to thank the Lord for those [START_REF] Weber | The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism[END_REF] For Weber, the most obvious blessing is capitalistic success in particular and success in undertakings in general. If successful, any undertaking has been validated and blessed by God Himself. The notion of thankfulness for those results in believers counting their thankful praises 15 . They have two books of accounts. Expectedly, both accounts would be balanced. The consolidation of the two sets of records results in double entry books. God's blessings are gifts entrusted by God and are recorded as for credit. Symmetrically, thankful conduct is their counterpart and should be accounted for as debit. Credit is given a priori; the believer 13 See Galatians 2:17-21 14 The following paragraphs summarise The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. As the book is supposedly well known, we deliberately do not quote Weber literally. 15 For Biblical insights into accountability for God's blessings, see in the New Testament Matthew 5:11, 12:36, 13:21, Mark 4:17, Luke 1:3, 6:22, 16:2, 9:23, 19:3, John 12:9-11, 14:11, 15:21; in the Epistles: Romans 14:12, I Corinthians 14:24, II Corinthians 10:10, Philippians 1:24, Colossians, 3:6, 4:3, Philemon 1:18, Hebrews 4:13, 13:17, I Peter 4:5. These references are to be supplemented with those of the footnote above. Indeed, references from the Old Testament apply to Protestantism too. constructs the debit records accordingly to balance credits. Debits consist of Bible reading, praising and praying [START_REF] Jacobs | Accounting and accountability in the Iona Community[END_REF]. Periodically, the Protestant utilises prayer as the very device for communicating with God [START_REF] Lévinas | God, death and time[END_REF], whereby, s/he thanks Him for His blessings and acknowledges His magnificence. In brief, the Protestant praises Him.

Thankful conduct also consists of utilising God's blessings wisely, for which purpose, the believer records in a book what shall be the outcomes of his/her faithful conduct [START_REF] Booth | In darkest England and the way out[END_REF][START_REF] Wesley | The standard sermons of John Wesley[END_REF]. S/he self-records how s/he plans to use his/her gifts as well as what he expects from them. Only afterwards, s/he can compare his actuality with expectations. Thanks to such dashboards, s/he can measure the performance of his/her own conduct and the extent to which God is honoured. By this conduct, the believer is called for directing capabilities and skills at the maximisation of capitalistic profit. In order to be pleasant to God, the Protestant shall use his gifts in the most efficient and rational way. Thirdly, thankful conduct consists of paying back for God's blessings. The individual self-evaluates the amount to be paid. He then can refund his congregation accordingly. Lastly, the Protestant is encouraged to support people, who have not accepted God yet and are marginalised from society. To this end, books of accounts are expected to reveal witness actions, viz. sharing God's love with others [START_REF] Mckernan | Accounting, love and justice[END_REF] and social work activities [START_REF] Booth | In darkest England and the way out[END_REF]. In these cases, activity type and time devoted are used as working units and accounted for debit (faithful conduct and thanksgiving).

In all these cases, the rule guiding life is that Protestants rely on their own judgement and faith to conduct themselves. Nobody knows better than they do for what to thank God. In the same vein, nobody is able to fell how to thank and how much to refund. It is the believer who evaluates these on his own. Analogously, he self-appraises what wise use of God's gifts would mean. It is his responsibility that he erects a comprehensive rational evaluation system. It is his responsibility too that he always relies on that model for appraising the counterparts of God's blessings. As faith is the very intimacy of the individual [START_REF] Lévinas | God, death and time[END_REF], the same blessing can be accounted for differently from one person to another [START_REF] Mckernan | Doing the truth: religiondeconstructionjustice, and accounting[END_REF].

Debit Credit

Paybacks (self-evaluation) Prayers Praises Refunds Witness

Faith in unbounded God's blessings Figure 5. Accounting for blessings in Protestantism Protestantism reveals the contents of contemporary debates re accounting objectivity/subjectivity and the role of criticism. Manifestly, Protestantism resists to the logic of Roman Catholicism and returns to the Jewish roots of Christianity [START_REF] Wax | Ancient Judaism and the Protestant Ethic[END_REF]. Hence, Protestantism, by questioning God's hand in clergy evaluation models, reveals the aporetic nature of the Lord and value [START_REF] Derrida | Post-scriptum: aporias, ways and voices[END_REF]1994). Whereas the Catholic clergy claimed a revealed universal truth given through the Magisterium, Protestantism calls for subjective and contingent truths upheld by active Bible reading and prayer. Applied to accounting, these issues reveal the impossibility of objective and true measurements and evaluation models, which does not disqualify bookkeeping. Rather, this should stress the assumptions made by accountants, criticism being a quality for the accounting profession [START_REF] Bourguignon | The role of criticism in the dynamics of performance evaluation systems[END_REF].

Accounting for the Sharia in Islam

Historically, Islam appeared later than Judaism and Christianity and has been considered borrowing from both elder religions. In particular, common understandings of Allah are similar to those of the Christians' God, i.e. the almighty Creator punishing unfaithful people forever or promising Paradise for the Just; Allah is commonly presented as the incarnation of Justice [START_REF] Rodinson | Islam and Capitalism[END_REF]. As in Judaism, Allah was revealed to the Prophet through Angel Gabriel to whom He gave instructions re the conduct of a holy and just life. During his life, the Prophet was His messenger on earth and delivered the Sharia. Moreover, in Islam, Jesus Christ is an apostle of God and not His son, which does not prevent believers from awaiting his return [START_REF] Décobert | L'autorité religieuse aux premiers siècles de l'Islam[END_REF][START_REF] Murata | The vision of Islam[END_REF][START_REF] Tapper | The birth of the Prophet: ritual and gender in Turkish Islam[END_REF].

As in Judaism and Roman Catholicism, teleoaffective structures refer to salvation. When the believer passes away, s/he stands trial before Allah, Who appraises the consistency of conduct with the Sharia. Noticeably, the judgement day in Islam is called the Day of Accounts, on which the deceased person introduces the biographic accounts s/he kept to the Lord. If accounts are consistent with prescriptions from the Sharia, the person will be declared just and sent to Paradise. On the contrary, if the person is declared unjust, the next life will have Hell for retribution. However, as in Jansenist and Calvinist theologies, Islam is characterised by predestination, God selecting ex ante those who shall be saved, others being to conduct themselves as if they were chosen. At worse, they will not be rewarded, while as best Paradise is promised. Again, the Pascalian bet, prevailing in Calvinist theology, can apply to Islam too [START_REF] Mohammed | Concept of predestination in Islam and Christianity: special reference to Averroes and Aquinas[END_REF]Thomson, 1950a;b;[START_REF] Watt | Free will and predestination in early Islam[END_REF].

Rules enforced to arrive at Salvation rest upon the honouring the Sharia, viz. Islam's five pillars: faith in the Oneness of God and the finality of the prophethood16 of Muhammad, establishment of the daily prayers, concern for and almsgiving to the needy, self-purification through fasting, and pilgrimage to Mecca for those who can [START_REF] Murata | The vision of Islam[END_REF][START_REF] Rodinson | Islam and Capitalism[END_REF]. Eventually, the Sharia operates as the Law in Judaism, the five pillars being similar to the duties ordered by God [START_REF] Torrey | The Jewish Foundation of Islam[END_REF] and as sacramental accounting in Christianity, as daily prayers, casual almsgiving, annual fasting (on Ramadan) and pilgrimage to Mecca are recorded as events driving life [START_REF] Rodinson | Islam and Capitalism[END_REF].

Routines developed borrow from earlier Monotheisms and rely on recording in books all events of life. In Islamic literature, every believer is supervised by an angel keeping biographic books of accounts, in which the five pillars of Islam are the human doctrine of what Allah expects from faithful believers. Thence, the angel records their honouring as for debit balancing faith [START_REF] Rodinson | Islam and Capitalism[END_REF][START_REF] Torrey | The Jewish Foundation of Islam[END_REF]. In case of imbalance between commandments and actual conduct, retributions are expected in the next life (Hell), which reads as follows:

Debit Credit Islam's five pillars Praising one God and His Prophet Establishment of daily prayers Concern for and almsgiving to the needy Self-purification through fasting Pilgrimage to Mecca

Faith in God

Retributions and rewards in the next life Figure 6. Account of life for the Sharia in Islam

As salvation can be obtained through acts, the angel must record other daily events and their impact on Allah's Creations [START_REF] Gambling | Business and Accounting Ethics in Islam[END_REF][START_REF] Murata | The vision of Islam[END_REF][START_REF] Rodinson | Islam and Capitalism[END_REF]. In particular, actions directed at increasing the wellbeing of Allah's people must be accounted for. At the collective level, this consists of decreasing poverty and social inequality, for which purpose, collective effort is rewarded. At all times, the believer must seek for the counterpart of his/her conduct, either a beneficiary or a casualty. If conduct increases others' wellbeing, it is rewarded. On the contrary, if it decreases one piece of Creation, reparation is required. A common example is that of accidental death: if a believer incidentally kills another person, s/he is indebted to the casualty family unto death and must repair in accordance with his/her capabilities [START_REF] Murata | The vision of Islam[END_REF][START_REF] Rodinson | Islam and Capitalism[END_REF][START_REF] Smith | Islam in modern history[END_REF][START_REF] Torrey | The Jewish Foundation of Islam[END_REF]

Every feature partners' life was recorded in the Book of Accounts. So were counterparts in Islam. When Moslem held money, the counterpart appeared in the book. If a transaction happened to spoil a counterpart, the guilty person was prosecuted. Unfair and dishonest conduct was punished. In particular, Islamic bookkeeping has pointed out how believers honour the ideal of social justice as well as the prohibition of interest and speculation 18 . The following recitations from the Quran instance this:

But your Lord is Most forgiving, full of Mercy. If He were to call them (at once) to account for what they have earned, then surely He would have hastened their punishment: but they have their appointed time, beyond which they will find no refuge (Al-Kahf 18:58).

Verily We shall give life to the dead, and We record that which they send before and that which they leave behind, and of all things have We taken account in a clear Book [of evidence] (Yaa Seen 36 :12) 19 In both recitations, Islamic faithfulness rests upon an accounting system in which conduct is accounted for twice. The goods that the self left behind are accounted for as credit. The goods 17 The same principle applies to business and other economic transactions. As stated in the methodology section, these are beyond the scope of our study and are accordingly not developed in this paper. 18 Nowadays, Islamic finance and bookkeeping translate principled prohibition of interest and of speculative conduct and rest upon the notion of property rights, risk sharing, sanctity of contracts and Sharia-approved activities. 19 For further insights into revealed accounting procedures, see sent to Heaven are accounted for as debit. One could summarise the Islamic accounting spirituality as the recording of good and evil actions and of their counterparts, i.e. beneficiaries or casualties. Moslems introduce their Book to Allah Who rewards good conduct and punishes evil actions. The double entry design of the Book sheds light on the nature of the honouring of Islamic principles.

To ensure that believers would conform to the principles of the Sharia in their day-to-day conduct, Arab mathematicians might have first intuited double entry bookkeeping [START_REF] Aho | Confession and bookkeeping -the religious, moral, and rhetorical roots of modern accounting[END_REF]. The invention of the so-called Arab numbers allowed the birth of modern arithmetic and of calculation, which Roman numbers did not enable. Luca Pacioli developed his theory of double entry bookkeeping on the basis of modern arithmetic stemming from Arab numbers. Arab Mathematicians have developed the tools that would uphold the development of formal accounts. Although Tinker (2001) refutes the idea that modern accounting is a direct discovery of Islam, for the largest part of Moslems was not acquainted with these scientific discoveries, most scholars consider accounting has been an indirect discovery of Islam [START_REF] Crone | Meccan trade and the rise of Islam[END_REF][START_REF] Gambling | Business and Accounting Ethics in Islam[END_REF][START_REF] Iqbal | Islamic financial systems[END_REF][START_REF] Iqbal | Introduction to Islamic Finance: Theory and Practice[END_REF][START_REF] Taqi-Usmani | An introduction to Islamic finance (Arab and Islamic Laws)[END_REF][START_REF] Tinker | The Enlightenment and its discontents: Antinomies of Christianity, Islam and the calculative sciences[END_REF][START_REF] Zubair | Theory of profit: the Islamic viewpoint[END_REF].

Debit Credit Conduct Compensation

Beneficiaries/Casualties (as God's creatures affected)

Figure 6. Account of Transactions for the Sharia in Islam

The two books recorded by Moslems reveal morals duality: in this life as well as in the next life. When directed at Allah, the Account of Life reflects how conduct served and honoured Him faithfully. On the other hand, the Account of Transactions reveals how the individual conducts him/herself vis-à-vis Creation. Whereas in Judaism the former book is kept by the believer, in Islam accounts are recorded by an angel. But, as in Judaism, the believer stands trial before Allah on the Day of Accounts. On that day, consistency of conduct with the orders revealed by the Lord to the faithful believer is appraised. Accordingly, rewards or punishments are not appraised by anyone, but Allah Himself. Contrarily to Roman Catholicism, no intermediaries interfere in the construction of the account. The Account of Transactions reveals the realm of accounts: giving a fair representation of conduct to external parties. Accordingly, Islam emphasises two major issues in double entry bookkeeping. First, everything has a counterpart, which the accountant must find. It is on this sole base that balances or imbalances can be noted, rewarded or punished. Correlatively, the second issue is that a counterpart is contingent upon the context in which it is found, which prevents any claim for objective or true value, fair value being what really counts for the accountant. Perhaps, it is the reason why Allah audits these accounts, to ensure that values have the appropriate counterpart. It is also probably the reason why Islamic theologies do not seem to impose a priori counterparts or values.

Discussion and conclusion

Practice theory was used in this paper to address the moral foundations of accounting regardless of any imperative to constitute economic profits. This paper was an attempt to approach the essence of accounting. To do so, we deliberately left financial and physical dimensions of accounting aside. We rather focused on prescriptions of religious texts as through theological disputes to understand moral, cultural and social mechanisms whereby books of accounts are constituted and kept. Hence, we analysed the revelation of accounting to mankind through accounts of life and faith directed at God.

Islamic spirituality rests upon the Day of Accounts. Unto death, the believer records good and bad actions and their beneficiaries or casualties, if any. In fact, double entry bookkeeping supported the moralisation of their day-to-day life, including social and economic conduct.

Likewise, Judaism has based its spirituality upon the recording of performed and neglected duties unto death. When the Day of Judgement comes, the Jew shall be ready to disclose the account of his life to God. In Protestantism, the believer rests his spirituality upon the permanent counting of God's blessings. These grants from God are accounted for as credit and require gratitude as the debit counterpart. These accounts support the believer's day-today self-management whereby he thanks God and pays Him back for His benevolence. The Original Sin allowed the Roman Catholic Church to develop an accounting system whereby souls, sacraments and sins were accounted for. The table below summarises these four revelations of accounting. In the four practices, the providing of an account was revealed as a routine driving and moralising everyday life. In the four cases, faith is offered by God and therefore recorded as for credit. Conduct in this life is accounted for as debit and must balance faith in the Lord. It does seem that the four practices reveal the identification of the right counterpart for God's credits as morals. Eventually, the issues commonly raised in whichever practice is that of counterpart identification and measurement. Thence, beyond the sole rendering of accounts, morals rests upon the exact identification of what balances faith.

The very difference between the four practices lies in the understanding of what conduct can balance faith, viz. what is faithful conduct. Such understanding is manifested in differentiated doctrines of God's will. Hence, Judaism leaves the believer totally free to identify which duties are ordered by God, whilst Protestantism encourages the believer to count God's blessings and pay back for them through self-constructed conduct. On the contrary, Catholicism prescribes what conduct balances faith and soul offered by God, the clergy controlling that the flock acts consistently. Islamic spirituality stresses an intermediate position, in which the believer must honour five pillars to balance faith in Allah and evaluates on his/her own their very content. An angel keeps the books on the basis of what the Moslem understands as God's will. In other words, the very difference between the four practices lies in the contents of the accounts driven by stricter or looser doctrines of what should be done (common understanding, rules and teleoaffectice structures), while routines read common.

As theologies are clearly differentiated, different dimensions of accounting are revealed to mankind. Issues in rewards and punishments driving Judaism, Roman Catholicism and Islam could let think accounting dual nature lies in opposition of good and evil. Considering Protestantism makes a common feature emerge: dualism reconciles divinity and mankind, credits being given by God, while debits are human use made of these gifts. In the four practices, accounting is underpinned by conceptions of God's identity, capabilities and will and purports to appraise conduct fairness with regards to Salvation.

In Judaism and Protestantism, accounts serve to manage daily life and therefore are driven by no explicit rules. In both practices, the believer is permanently in contact with God from Whom they expect orders. The latter are then interpreted and translated into actions nobody can verify. Free judgement, demands for help re interpretation of God's will and absence of any intermediaries between the self and the Lord are the common base of Judaism and Protestantism [START_REF] Wax | Ancient Judaism and the Protestant Ethic[END_REF]. Difference between both stems from common understandings (God's identity and capabilities) and teleoaffective structures (re salvation). In Judaism, God revealed Himself through the Law, which the believer must honour to be saved. Unsurprisingly, the notion of obligations drives the practice and leads to verification followed by rewards and retributions. In Protestantism, the Lord sent His son to expiate the world's sins and save it under the condition that mankind accepts and follows him [START_REF] Wesley | The standard sermons of John Wesley[END_REF]. The nature of salvation can only be understood by the believer, who correlatively will thank God for it. Therefore, Protestant accounting reveals no systems of verification, rewards and punishments.

In Roman Catholicism and Islam, accounts are rendered through a pre-established format: ways of faithfully balancing the soul given by God are made explicit and controlled. The Sharia five pillars and the Book of Transactions in Islam read similar to sacramental and sin accounting in Roman Catholicism. In both practices, accounting procedures are standardised, which enables a priest or an angel to keep records of life events. In Islam, God appraises the fairness of the believer's books of accounts and rewards or punishes accordingly. Hence, verification of counterpart exactitude and appropriateness seems to be inherent to bookkeeping, which leads to auditing as an inherent dimension of accounting. Through sacramental and confessional accounts, Catholicism reveals the need for an institution on earth training individuals to keep the books and standardising reports through the enforcement of generally applicable principles controllable by the clergy and auditable by God.

In sum, in the four practices, mankind is expected to provide God with biographic accounts balancing life and faith. In the four cases, common understanding-based procedures drive the way believers must render accounts of their life. These consist of the similar features: naming and counting actions directed at God to balance or measure faithfulness, internal control exerted by intermediaries and auditing of the books by God or intermediaries to verify consistency and fairness. Hence, balances of fairly measured and exposed counterparts (given by and returned to God) are routines serving practice as morals. The four practices observed reveal that similar devices are used in accounting systems, the utmost formal difference being the rules driving them and format under which they are kept. As the latter read like formal representations of common understandings, they operate as the doctrine of what should be done and how. This paper investigated the spiritual origins of accounting through day-to-day activities in the religions of the Book. In the four cases, accounts served to drive spiritual life and were addressed to God. Qua a regulator of daily conduct, accounting inevitably served to assess morality of economic transactions, as these were made in the name of God [START_REF] Carruthers | Accounting for rationality: Double-Entry Bookkeeping and the rhetoric of economic rationality[END_REF][START_REF] Freytag | Soll und Haben[END_REF][START_REF] Maltby | Accounting and the soul of the middle-class: Gustav Freytag's Soll und Haben[END_REF]. In the four cases, making profit through means consistent with commandments from God was a moral obligation. Just like other day-to-day activities, economic transactions were accounted for. As they were easier to identify, measure and record, systematic books of accounts could be kept, as we know them nowadays.

Historians of Judaism consider that the earliest revealed religion first developed economic transactions and their morals through books of accounts. [START_REF] Sombart | The Jews and modern capitalism[END_REF][START_REF] Sombart | The quintessence of Capitalism[END_REF] relates this to the status of wandering Chosen People. In that capacity, Jews have always been responsible for the world and travelled to moralise most transactions, which was considered a duty ordered by God. From their voyages overseas, they first brought back new products and thereby created the earliest forms of international trade and Capitalism, developing profitability calculations (Sombart, 1911, p.120). Stepwise, Jewish traders were tolerated in European countries to handle prohibited activities, such as money lending, which allowed the development of finance and banking (Sombart, 1911, p.122). Financial activities enabled the constitution of the Bank account, which is likely to be the very base of double entry bookkeeping [START_REF] Attali | Les Juifs, le monde et l'argent[END_REF]. In sum, day-to-day activities addressed to God comprised of economic transactions facilitated by the status of Chosen People.

Historians of Catholicism have unanimously outlined that the Church has operated like a capitalistic organisation since the Renaissance, either in France [START_REF] Michaud | L'Eglise et l'argent sous l'Ancien Régime -Les receveurs généraux du clergé de France aux XVIè -XVIIIè siècles[END_REF] or in Italy [START_REF] Cohen | Rational capitalism in Renaissance Italy[END_REF][START_REF] Hallman | Italian Cardinals, Reform and the Church as Property[END_REF]. Sacramental and sin accounting has long been a source of income for the Roman Catholic Church, which has stepwise traded them: marriage [START_REF] Davidson | The medieval church and rents from marriage market regulations[END_REF], confession [START_REF] Aho | Confession and bookkeeping -the religious, moral, and rhetorical roots of modern accounting[END_REF], or more broadly the cure of souls [START_REF] Hallman | Italian Cardinals, Reform and the Church as Property[END_REF]. As churchgoers were to book their seat in Heaven, they were to pay for the perpetual cure of their sinning soul, including marriage and confessional practices (Hallman, 1985, p.1). Every Christian was considered as a provisional provider of resources for the church. Therefore, they were all accounted for from birth to death, which allowed to provision them as accrued perpetual income until death (Hallman, 1985, p.19) 21 . These perpetual rents allowed the acquisition of properties by the Church, which were managed to generate additional income. The management of church property consisted of alienating them, i.e. letting or leasing vacancies and receiving instalments as counterparts (Hallman, 1985, pp.52-53). Similarly, properties could be distributed to reward faithful churchmen or churchgoers. In the case of churchmen, faithfulness was assumed. In fact, it is their ability to accumulate church income that was rewarded. As such, individual economic or spiritual effort was rewarded with capital (Hallman, 1985, p.107). This allowed the accumulation of monetary capital. Its reinvestment in lucrative properties is consistent with Sombart's approach to capitalism, i.e. the perpetual accumulation of capital. On the other hand, rewarding faithful servants from the church equity is similar to contemporary employee incentives or profit sharing. In fact, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church have historically behaved as capitalistic entrepreneurs.

Whereas the Roman Catholic Church has evolved as an enterprise, its flock has historically not been much involved in economic life. In a study on the religious affiliation of industry leaders, [START_REF] Weber | The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism[END_REF] observes that these tended to be Protestants rather than Catholics. He attributed this statement to the Protestant ethic that encourages capitalistic undertaking and success. On the contrary, money and capital are taboos within Roman Catholicism, possibly because evaluation models of indulgences and ecclesial benefices have been problematic. Weber ascribes the spirit of Capitalism to the Protestant ethic: reaction to the Roman Catholic notion of divine grace and its delineations. To meet God's requirements, the individual must respond His to calling, which consists of vocational work. The valuation of the fulfilment of duties in worldly affairs as the highest form which the moral activity of the individual could assume (Weber, 1921, p.40). For Weber, the utmost blessing given by God is entrepreneurial success: capital accumulation rewards faith in unknown future. God responds to faithfulness and risk exposition through economic rewards, which are the most intelligible for mankind. In turn, multiplication of blessings (skills, money, offspring) appears as a righteous use of initial gifts. The Protestant ethic then consists of thanking God for His blessings and of paying Him back by funding one's church. Economic rationality operates as a substitute to emotions in Protestantism.

Historians of Islam admit recognition that there is a basic affinity between the economic scheme of Islam and the capitalistic system [START_REF] Iqbal | Introduction to Islamic Finance: Theory and Practice[END_REF][START_REF] Rodinson | Islam and Capitalism[END_REF]. They unanimously agree on that Islam has been seeking for the increase of collective wellbeing through rewarded consistent with individual merits. Private ownership of means of production is encouraged by Islam, as it enables collective enrichment and the improvement of needy people's situation. Earned profits are shared with others through almsgiving (Sharia's fourth pillar). To ensure that no actor in economic life is spoiled, Islam prohibits future arrangements: wages are paid instantly and may not be delayed; price of goods must be paid when they are delivered. As future is risky, there is no reason that only one party in the transaction bares it entirely. Like profits, it is shared, which leads to interest and interest prohibition. [START_REF] Rodinson | Islam and Capitalism[END_REF] explains that the honouring of the Sharia was to be accounted for in books of economic transactions on the same base as day-to-day conduct.

This research has a dual contribution to accounting knowledge. First, it shows that accounting systems are consistent patterns of rules and routines upheld by common understandings and ability to pay the same rent. Actually, the resources of the Roman Catholic Church had followed a geometrical trend, to which worldwide missionary expansion has added arithmetical progression too.

teleoaffective structure and have no existence and essence per se. Despite similar calculative and discursive threads, accounting systems differ from one context to another by common understandings re the goals they pursue and teleoaffective structures to reach these. Although this confirms and supports the idea that accounting is a practice situated in the social context in which it operates [START_REF] Burchell | The roles of accounting in organizations and society[END_REF][START_REF] Burchell | Accounting in its social context: Towards a history of value added in the United Kingdom[END_REF][START_REF] Laughlin | Accounting in its Social Context: An Analysis of the Accounting Systems of the Church of England[END_REF], the originality of the study lies in the topic: a comparative analysis of day-to-day accounting practices in the three Monotheisms. The comparison enabled us to contribute to that body of literature, identifying that social context strongly influences the contents of accounting systems and not their essence. For instance, in a restaurant chain, the contents of accounting systems are driven by perishable inventories and menu design: food, beverage and transformation into profitable dishes [START_REF] Ahrens | The structuration of legitimate performance measures and management: day-to-day contests of accountability in a U.K. restaurant chain[END_REF], 2007).

Second, our study demonstrates that double entry bookkeeping and accounting have some common bases. The four religions reveal that accounting calculations are underpinned by strong assumptions re God's expectations (theology). Hence, in any social context, accounting serves as routines shaped by rules to drive individuals towards common goals on the basis of clear common understandings of what a Higher-Stakeholder expects [START_REF] Laughlin | Principals and higher-principals: accounting for accountability in the caring professions[END_REF]. Once common understandings and teleoaffective structures are clarified, various ways of measuring, keeping books, and auditing may be delivered. Transferred to other social contexts, this early revelation stresses that evaluation models are based upon strong assumptions operating similarly to religious beliefs [START_REF] Derrida | Specters of Marx: the state of the debt, the work of mourning, and the New International[END_REF][START_REF] Kamuf | Accounterability. Textual practice[END_REF]. Faith and God's gifts can be identified and counted in infinite ways, each of these resting upon strong assumptions revealed as common understandings and teleoaffective structures. Similarly, any evaluation models and their accounting offshoot have no value per se and merely reflect assumptions made by practice members, regulators or verifiers. For instance, investors' expected returns are assumed to be revealed through the CAPM, whose beta is the offshoot of optimisation programmes. All this assumes that capital markets are efficient and investors economically rational.

These conclusions call for further twofold development in accounting history. First, the argument would benefit from confrontation with other religious contexts than the three Revealed Monotheisms. Conclusions consistent with ours would feed accounting as device in moral practices and enrich our understanding of its shapes. On the contrary, divergent conclusions would challenge the moralising capabilities of accounting.

Second, our conclusion that accounting is a sub-practice entailed and upheld by broader moral practices would benefit from confrontation with studies aligning the birth of accounting and Capitalism. Our study calls for extensions scrutinising accounting and Capitalism as moral practices. We do believe that identifying the morals of Capitalism and economic rationality would either challenge our conclusions, or enrich our understanding of the possibilities offered by accounting. Conclusions supporting ours would enable to consider accounting a powerful moral device wherever it operates. On the opposite, divergent conclusions would offer new possibilities for the understanding of accounting.

  Figure 2. Coding template.

Figure 7 .

 7 Figure 7. Differentiated revelations of religion as practice 20

  Each person's credits and debits […] are entered not just once, but twice: first in the Book of Accounts, a judicial record kept on earth by humanity, and again in the Book of Life, a register of citizenship in [heaven](Aho, 2005, p.xv).

  14 . The following incident is the refrain of a traditional Protestant canticle still chanted nowadays: Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God hath done! Count your blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Matthew

22:21; Luke 20:25. 2 See Acts 25:6-21, 27:24, 28:19.

Three papers were published in Accounting History on financial accounts in Judaism.

Numerous PhD dissertations dealing with these issues have been defended in Latin America and Italy.

See Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2004 and 2005 special issues (17:3 and 18:2)

In 2006, Accounting Historians Journal published several papers on Islamic accounting. On the other hand, in 2010, the first issue of the Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research will be published, in which these issues will be handled more systematically.

For more details re our dataset, see Appendix 1.

The faith that the Messiah will restore the Kingdom of Israel, which under his sceptre will extend over the whole world.

The notion that a last terrible battle will take place with the enemies of God (or of Israel), who will strive against the establishment of the kingdom, and who will finally be destroyed. 3 the conviction that it will be an age of both material as well as spiritual happiness for all those who are included in the kingdom(Schechter, 1895a, p.206).Obviously, these have been the cement of the Jewish Law 9 and rules for everyday life. Initially, rules were 613 in number and covered all aspects of life, 365 being prohibitive laws (and as many sanctions), whereas the other 248 were affirmative and accounted for[START_REF] Urbach | Les sages d'Israël -conceptions et croyances des maîtres du Talmud[END_REF]. The rabbinic literature, such as synthesised by[START_REF] Urbach | Les sages d'Israël -conceptions et croyances des maîtres du Talmud[END_REF], explains that every day brings its new temptation to be resisted only by a firm Do-Not. On the other hand, the whole 8 See Exodus 27:2 and Leviticus 18:2. 9 The Old Testament (viz. the Jewish Bible) evokes on numerous occurrences that the believer must account for his conduct and for God's gifts (see in Genesis 1:[22][23][24][25][26][27][28] 3:16, 6:1, 8:17, 16:10,[17][18][19][20] 22:17, 28:3, 35:11, 48:4; Exodus: 1:10, 7:3, 23:29, 32:13; Leviticus 26:9; Deuteronomy 6:3, 7:13,[8][9][10][11][12][13] 13:17, 30:16; 22:29; I Chronicles 4:27; Job 19:18; Psalms 16:4, 107:38; Proverbs 6:35; Isaiah 51:2; Jeremiah 23:3, 29:6, 30:19, 33:22; 37:26; Hosea 4:10, 12:1; Amos 4:4; Nahum 3:15; Chronicles 11:11, 16:19, Esther 10:2; Prophets: Isaiah 2:22, Ezekiel 12:19, 16:61, 24:13,; Daniel 6:2, Amos 4:5, 8:8,[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Psalm 26:7, 100:4, 107:22, 116:17, 147:7, Jeremiah 30:19).

See Genesis 3:1-13.

See Leviticus 16:21, 26:40; Numbers 5:7; Psalms 32:5, 38:18, John 9:22,

12:42; Acts 24:14; Romans 10:9, 14:11; Philippians 2:11, I Timothy 3:16; James 5:16; I John 1:9, 4:3; II John 1:7; Revelation of John 3:5, 11:1-13.

Through the plural form, we emphasise that Protestantism is not unique. It comprises of Lutherans, Calvinists, Methodists, Pentecostalists, Evangelists, Adventists, Baptists, Anabaptists, Pietists and numerous new congregations popping up.

Hereby, we do not address theological debates re prophet identity leading to dichotomies between Chism and Sunnism. We do not question here whether the right Prophet in Islam is Muhammad or Ali.

For more details on comparisons between Judaism, Christianity and Islam, see appendix 2.

In Davidson's and Ekelund Jr.'s (1997) article, the theory of interest is metaphorically applied to the evaluation of provisional rents. The Church accounted for people from birth unto death. The wise insights of its leaders into fecundity and mortality rates allowed to forecast how many living children would bring perpetual resources. Thence, rents from one couple could be multiplied by the expected amount of offspring and their

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the 2009 European Accounting Association annual conference in Tampere, the 2009 French Sociology Association Congress in Paris, the Wards seminar series at the University of Glasgow. We are thankful to those who helped us develop the paper, and especially Claude Dargent, Trevor Hopper, Helen Irvine, Salvatore Maugueri, Martin Messner, Ken McPhail, John McKernan, Margaret Milner, Keith Robson Rabbi Haïm Korsia, Rabbi Joël Touati and Stephen Walker.

KEEPING ACCOUNTS BY THE BOOK: THE REVELATION(S) OF ACCOUNTING Appendix 1. Historiographic and theological references

Judaism Roman Catholicism Protestantism Islam [START_REF] Attali | Les Juifs, le monde et l'argent[END_REF][START_REF] Sombart | The Jews and modern capitalism[END_REF][START_REF] Sombart | The quintessence of Capitalism[END_REF]) [START_REF] Urbach | The sages, their beliefs and concepts[END_REF][START_REF] Urbach | Les sages d'Israël -conceptions et croyances des maîtres du Talmud[END_REF]) [START_REF] Kaplan | Israel under the moundain: Emmanuel Levinas on freedom and constraint in the Revelation of the Torah[END_REF] Copeland ( 2002