The New Visibility of Religion in the Development Arena

Kaag, Mayke; Saint-Lary, Maud

doi:10.4000/apad.4075

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…However, the emergence of the field of religion and development has largely led to the contestation between the detrimental aspects of religion and its value to development theory and practice (Tyndale 2006;Haynes 2007;Berger 2010). This inconclusive debate continues to add significant literature to the field (Kaag and Saint-Lary 2011). Much of the literature is composed of theoretical debates with few empirical studies from the field.…”

Section: Pentecostalism and Development In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Breaking the Spirit of Poverty in African Pentecostal Christianity

Ngetich

2023

J. Relig. Afr.

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Poverty is one of Africa’s most intractable problems. Decades of deliberate and strategic socioeconomic policies have not yielded considerable concrete results to eradicate it. Upon succeeding the brutal colonial administration, the burgeoning African governments promised their citizens material well-being through socioeconomic development. A half century later the continent is perpetually witnessing a blatant betrayal of dreams. Just like the African governments that succeeded colonial governments, religious organizations continue to promise poverty eradication by divine means to their adherents, whose numbers keep exploding across the continent. The Pentecostal variant of African Christianity is particularly renowned for its promises of wealth, health, and prosperity through supernatural divine power: in the Bible, God has promised to deliver immense material goods to those who believe in Jesus Christ. The expediency of these promises to alleviate poverty and bring about social transformation is debatable. Some scholars argue that African Pentecostalism is an elaborately complex increase in religious activities devoid of social structural transformation, while others opine that it contributes positively to development. In asking whether African Pentecostal Christianity is a move toward or a distraction from development, this article broadly explores discourses on Pentecostalism and development in Africa. Arguably, in the endeavor to preach and live out the experiential power of the Holy Spirit, Pentecostal Christianity in Africa inadvertently plays a role in the broader ongoing development discourse. Although they do not view themselves as ‘religious’ or ‘religion’, Pentecostal churches’ attempts to make the teachings of Jesus Christ relevant to the mundane help individual believers cope with life’s stresses and vulnerabilities. However, it does not transform the social conditions that create problems for individuals. The liberating hope of African Pentecostal Christianity lies in theologically nuancing its discourses to meaningfully engage in global development discourses.

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Section: Pentecostalism and Development In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Breaking the Spirit of Poverty in African Pentecostal Christianity

Ngetich

2023

J. Relig. Afr.

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“…Never in the difficult times in Uganda did religious organizations left the center stage and took a peripheral stage. The presence of religious bodies in all these spheres has made religion to be a force to reckon with in providing social protection based on charity principles (Kaag & Saint-Lary 2012;. There are several empirical studies that demonstrate the centrality of religion in enforcing change in as far as development is concerned in Uganda.…”

Section: The Contribution Of Religion To Development In Ugandamentioning

confidence: 99%

Religion and Development in Africa

2020

Bible in Africa Studies

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WCC) Ecumenical HIV & AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy (EHAIA) for ongoing reflections on religion and development. The editors acknowledge the commitment of the contributors who persevered to see the project to its logical conclusion. We are grateful to Prof. Dr. Joachim Kügler for providing a conducive environment and platform at the University of Bamberg for debating the role the Bible and religion play in Africa. Support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enabled the editors to work on the project during research stays in Germany and is hereby saluted. We dedicate this volume to the memory of our late colleague Prof Dr Nisbert Taringa, a founding co-editor and important author of the BiAS series including the subseries ERA. With his volume Towards an African-Christian Environmental Ethic (BiAS 13), he was a pioneer to bring the topic of religion, ecology and development into our series. We will always be grateful for his support and all his creative contributions! Alkire, Sabine. 2010. "Human Development, Definitions, Critiques, and Related Concepts: Background Paper for the 2010 Human Development Report," OPHI Working Paper No. 36,

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“…Religion has most often, during modernity and even beyond, been considered as anti-developmental and posing impediments to development, and therefore divorced from development theory, policy and practice (Ter Haar and Ellis 2006, 352;Hoffstaedter 2011;Rakodi 2012;Marshal 2011;Jones and Pedersen 2011;Kaag and Saint-Lary 2011). Consequently, institutionalised and/or organised religion, until recently, has been largely considered problematic to development, if not "part of the development problem" (Haynes 2007, 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, until the late 20th century, religion had been largely neglected and divorced from mainline development theory, policy and practice(Ter Haar and Ellis 2006, 352;Hoffstaedter 2011;Rakodi 2012; Marshal 2011; Jones and Pedersen 2011;Kaag and Saint-Lary 2011). This divorce especially went "increasingly unnoticed when modernization theories of development became dominant in the 1950s and 1960s"(Kaag and Saint-Lary 2011, 2).…”

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confidence: 99%

Religion and Sustainable Development in Africa: Neo-Pentecostal Economies in Perspective

Golo

Novieto

2022

Relig. Dev.

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The secular approach to development has treated religion as anti-developmental. However, the history of how development was part of missionary activity, such as the provision of health and educational infrastructure in some African countries, has been widely acknowledged. In this paper, therefore, we contend that the marginalisation of religion in development discourse is a result of a faulty and fractured understanding of religion. We argue that sustainable development, if attainable in contemporary Africa, would require that organised and institutional religions in Africa as well as their religious cosmologies, convictions and orientations feature and remain integral to such processes. With reference to neo-Pentecostal economies in Africa, we intend to discuss why and how religion – religious cosmologies, ontologies and institutions – is indispensable in the sustainable development process in Africa. Specifically, keeping in focus the human dimensions of development, we intend to argue that the beliefs, teachings and activities of neo-Pentecostal churches on human salvation, progress and/or transformation, such as prosperity and wealth creation, which has seen them emerge on the socioeconomic scene, indicate the potentials of neo-Pentecostals in particular, and religion in general, to contribute immensely to sustainable development. This, however, is not to gloss over some of the challenges they potentially pose to sustainable development.

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The New Visibility of Religion in the Development Arena

Cited by 8 publications

References 12 publications

Breaking the Spirit of Poverty in African Pentecostal Christianity

Breaking the Spirit of Poverty in African Pentecostal Christianity

Religion and Development in Africa

Religion and Sustainable Development in Africa: Neo-Pentecostal Economies in Perspective

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