Religion and the Politics of Development

Fountain, Philip; Bush, R. Mitchell; Feener, R. Michael

doi:10.1057/9781137438577_2

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Religion is increasingly gaining prominence within the development sector and more recent literature is indicating that the relationship between religion and development is an issue that requires greater consideration and understanding (see Clarke 2011;2013;Deneulin and Bano 2009;ter Haar 2011;Rees 2011;Fountain et al 2015;Tomalin 2015). This recognition is relatively recent, with religion historically being invisible (at best) or taboo (at worst).…”

Section: Religion and Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Questions to Help Understand Religion and Development in Vanuatu

Clarke¹

2019

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Across the Pacific, Christianity features prominently in both the modern history as well as the contemporary social-political experiences of these countries. In Vanuatu, self-professed Christian religious belief approaches one hundred per cent of the population. It is clear that religion in Vanuatu has important effects on development processes, social services, institutions, and social networks. Yet, despite this self-evident close integration, much more research is required to better understand the entanglements of Christianity and development. Drawing on previous research in Vanuatu, this article identifies seven key questions that require further research. These questions cover issues associated with gender, participation, leadership, theology, partnerships, and dynamics of religious change. It is proposed that these seven questions also have relevancy across the Pacific region. Holding greater knowledge of the intersection between religion and development will lead to more authentic engagement with religion and religious organisations and potentially better development outcomes for local communities.

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Section: Religion and Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Questions to Help Understand Religion and Development in Vanuatu

Clarke¹

2019

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“…5 See Fountain, Bush and Feener (2015); also, Swart and Nell 2016 6 I write as a non-Lds scholar with academic interests in religious change in the Pacific. My wider research has brought me into contact with Lds Saints, their scriptures and solidarities, and the dearth of studies of their Pacific development agendas and theologies led to the research for this article.…”

Section: Conclusion: the Lds Church In The Pacificmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal and Spiritual Self-Reliance: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Development in the South Pacific

Morris

2019

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church, aka, the Mormons) plays a significant but largely neglected role in the literature on development in the Pacific. The aim of this paper is to address this lacuna and highlight the distinctive LDS theology of development without which their development agendas make little sense. The Pacific is pivotal to the LDS Church's global mission where its commitments to development, and emergency relief, have since the 1980s been increasingly understood in terms of an overarching theology of 'self-reliance', explored here both theologically and as specifically applied in the Pacific. Two main arguments are advanced in this article. First, the LDS Church's development programmes in the Pacific have led to a re-articulation of their self-understanding and rationale and a recalibration of their Church's priorities regionally and beyond. Second, while it often seems that Mormons are wedded to the capitalist system, this is recent and they are equally heirs to another model of 'economic or gospel communalism', and that the retrieval of this tradition is consistent with the Church's priorities for the Pacific and a growing concern there.

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“…The roles of religion within the mainstream humanitarian industry remain ambiguous. For while there are longstanding attempts to demarcate and exclude religion from processes of relief, apparent for example in the Red Cross Code of Conduct (Fountain 2015), it is also clear that various religious actors are prominent initiators, forebears, and contemporary participants within the formal humanitarian sector. As a consequence, humanitarian claims to a purely secular, nonreligious identity must be critically examined.…”

Section: Salvage and Salvationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…8. For a related analysis of concepts of religion in relation to both development and politics see Fountain, Bush, and Feener (2015). For further seminal critical studies on religion, see Cavanaugh Fitzgerald (2003;; Keane (2007); McCutcheon (1997); van der Veer (2001); and de Vries (2007).…”

Section: Nicholsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salvage and Salvation: Guest Editors’ Introduction

Fountain¹,

McLaughlin²

2016

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W hat does it mean to offer salvation in the midst of disaster? This is the question that animates the articles in this special issue, all of which probe the complex dynamics at play in the intersections of religion and disaster relief in contemporary Asia. Here, we seek to advance inquiry into the conceptual categories of "religion," "disaster," "relief," and "Asia" by drawing on recent theoretical advances across a variety of disciplines.The recent history of Asia is replete with frequent, massive, and high profile "natural" disasters as well as innumerable smaller-scale events that nevertheless devastate local communities. Though the casualties, economic losses, and graphic images of material damage caused by Asian disasters often receive primetime-albeit shortlived-attention in the global media, disaster impacts are far more wide-ranging than such reporting tends to reveal. Disasters affect all aspects of social life in ways that continue long after a precipitating event, and they frequently operate as decisive points at which new spaces are opened for political, social, and religious change. 1 The cultural dynamism of disasters also emerges from the social processes that arise in response to it, including efforts to "salvage" damaged assets and through actions aimed at delivering "salvation"-a process that is simultaneously material and social. Additionally, in the wake of major disasters in contemporary Asia, relief and reconstruction activities, as well as various forms of gifting and charity, frequently inspire complex global entanglements across spatial and cultural gaps.We argue that religious mobilizations in the wake of Asian disasters provide compelling opportunities to scrutinize pivotal theoretical concerns within the contemporary social sciences. This special issue is particularly concerned with what analysis of the religion-disaster-relief nexus can do for our understanding of the first of these three key terms: religion. Among the increasingly diverse set of actors that engage in disaster relief today are an array of organizations, movements, congregations,

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Religion and the Politics of Development

Cited by 14 publications

References 51 publications

Questions to Help Understand Religion and Development in Vanuatu

Questions to Help Understand Religion and Development in Vanuatu

Temporal and Spiritual Self-Reliance: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Development in the South Pacific

Salvage and Salvation: Guest Editors’ Introduction

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