This first study of faith-based development NGOs’ (FBOs) political roles focuses on how U.S. FBOs in international development educate and mobilize their constituencies. Most pursue cautious reformist agendas, but FBOs have sometimes played important roles in social movements. Nelson unpacks those political roles by examining the prominence of advocacy in the organizations, the issues they address and avoid, their transnational relationships, and their relationships with religious and secular social movements. The agencies that educate and mobilize U.S. constituencies most actively are associated with small Christian sects or with non-Christian minority faiths with historic commitments to activism or service. Specialized advocacy NGOs play important roles, and emerging movements on immigration and climate may represent fresh political energy. The book examines faith-based responses to the crises of climate change, COVID-19, and racial injustice, and argues that these will shape the future of religion as a moral and political force in America, and of NGOs in international development.

Over the past few decades Christianity in the global South has grown exponentially in size and influence, with many centers emerging around the globe, such as Brazil, South Korea, and Nigeria. One remarkable phenomenon in this process is the rise of faith-based, humanitarian, international, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). While traveling to about seventy different countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, Haemin Lee has witnessed the surge of faith-based NGOs all around the world. This book explores the role that religion plays in encountering secular society from various angles by drawing upon discourses in mission studies, sociology of religion, and anthropology of development. Specifically, it probes the development practices of two major Korean organizations, Korea Food for the Hungry International and Good Neighbors. This book investigates the following hypothesis: humanitarian care through international development NGOs appears to be the growing interest of Korean Christian mission and this shows a new direction of Korean Christianity as public religion. However, on closer examination, a more complex reality emerges in which diverse theological and developmental ideals motivate the Korean NGOs' humanitarian efforts.

In recent years, the role of religion in influencing international health policy and health services provision has been seen as increasingly important. This book provides a social history of the relationship between religion and America's international health policy and practice from the latter 19th century to the present. The book demonstrates that the fields of religion and public health have distinct moral frameworks, each with their own rationales, assumptions, and motivations. While these two frameworks share significant synergies, substantial tensions also exist, which are negotiated in political contexts. The book traces the origins of religion’s influence on public health to the Progressive Era in the latter half of the 19th century, examines tensions that arose in the first half of the 20th century, describes the divorce between religion and international health from the 1940s through the 1980s, identifies the sources of the renewed interest in the relationship between religion and international health, and anticipates the future contours of religion and international health in light of contemporary political and economic forces.While the influence of religion on international health practice and policy in the United States serves as the focus of the book, the effects of US policies on international health policies in general are also explored in depth, especially in the book’s later chapters. This ambitious study of religion’s social history in the United States over the last 150 years will be of interest to researchers in global health, politics, religion and development studies.

This Handbook provides a cutting-edge survey of the state of research on religions and global development. Part one highlights critical debates that have emerged within research on religions and development, particularly with respect to theoretical, conceptual and methodological considerations, from the perspective of development studies and its associated disciplines. Parts two to six look at different regional and national development contexts and the place of religion within these. These parts integrate and examine the critical debates raised in part one within empirical case studies from a range of religions and regions. Different religions are situated within actual locations and case studies thus allowing a detailed and contextual understanding of their relationships to development to emerge. Part seven examines the links between some important areas within development policy and practice where religion is now being considered, including: Faith-Based Organisations and Development Public Health, Religion and Development Human rights, Religion and Development Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Religion Global Institutions and Religious Engagement in Development Economic Development and Religion Religion, Development and Fragile States Development and Faith-Based Education Taking a global approach, the Handbook covers Africa, Latin America, South Asia, East and South-East Asia, and the Middle East. It is essential reading for students and researchers in development studies and religious studies, and is highly relevant to those working in area studies, as well as a range of disciplines, from theology, anthropology and economics to geography, international relations, politics and sociology.

Religion, Welfare, and Social Service Provision: Common Ground delves deeply into the partnerships forged between religious communities, government agencies and nonprofits to deliver social services to the needy. These pages offer a considered examination of how local faith entities have served those in their midst, and how the provision of those services has been impacted by evolving social policies. This foundational volume brings together the work of more than two dozen leading researchers, each providing long overdue scholarly inquiry into religiously affiliated helping and the many possibilities that it holds for effective cooperation.

[This book] meshes a discussion of development issues and processes with four different systems of religious beliefs: Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baha'i Faith. The authors - each a scientist as well as a person of faith - show how religious belief and personal faith can be deeply motivational and strikingly fruitful in scientific pursuits. Further, they emphasize how their faith has brought them a profound understanding of interconnectedness and compassion, and thus a wider perspective and greater sense of personal meaning to their research. -- Book jacket.

A religion is a system of stories, and there is no better way to engage with the worldÕs religions than through the stories that animate their beliefs and practices. Through the exploration of these ancient stories and contemporary practices, Stephen Prothero, a New York TimesÐbestselling author and gifted storyteller, helps students better grasp the role of religion in our fractured world and to develop greater religious literacy. Videos and an award-winning adaptive learning tool, InQuizitive, further engage students and help them master core objectives and develop their own religious literacy.

The rise of fundamentalist movements in major religions has forced decision-makers, development organizations and academics to turn their attention to its meaning for development. Global scholars and practitioners examine these issues and fundamentally question the secular-religious dichotomy in development discourse and practice.

Exploring faith-based organizations (FBOs) in current developmental discourses and practice, this book presents a selection of empirical in-depth case-studies of Christian FBOs and assesses the vital role credited to FBOs in current discourses on development. Examining the engagement of FBOs with contemporary politics of development, the contributions stress the agency of FBOs in diverse contexts of development policy, both local and global. It is emphasised that FBOs constitute boundary agents and developmental entrepreneurs: they move between different discursive fields such as national and international development discourses, theological discourses, and their specific religious constituencies. By combining influxes from these different contexts, FBOs generate unique perspectives on development: they express alternative views on development and stress particular approaches anchored in their theological social ethics. This book should be of interest to those researching FBOs and their interaction with international organizations, and to scholars working in the broader areas of religion and politics and politics and development.

This book examines the role of faith-based organizations in managing international aid, providing services, defending human rights and protecting democracy. It argues that greater engagement with faith communities and organizations is needed, and questions traditional secularism that has underpinned development policy and practice in the North.