Who’s Afraid of Religion? Tensions between ‘Mission’ and ‘Development’ in the Norwegian Mission Society

Hovland, Ingie

doi:10.1057/9780230371262_8

Cited by 24 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…development organisations on the one hand, and 'faith' communities on the other, as if they were separate entities, with the latter to be used for the former's ends. This division between 'secular' and 'religious' has been questioned in the literature (see Ager and Ager, 2011;Calhoun et al, 2011;Deneulin & Bano, 2009;Hovland, 2007;Leurs, 2012;Linden, 2007;Olivier 2016;Smith, 2017…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engaging development and religion: Methodological groundings

Deneulin

Zampini-Davies

2017

World Development

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Religion is no longer a neglected dimension in development studies. Not only has the literature on religion and development blossomed over the last decade, but partnerships between international development institutions and faith communities have also multiplied. Yet, little is said about how such engagement is to take place beyond reference to general principles, and beyond the instrumental use of religion for achieving predetermined international development goals. The aim of the paper is to propose some methodological grounding for engaging development and religion at the normative level. It does so on the basis of Amartya Sen's capability approach and Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si': On Care of Our Common Home. Although the latter is written by the global Catholic leader, it is addressed to every human being and urges a redefinition of the meaning of development. Our paper argues that the encyclical contains a potentially fruitful methodological proposal for engaging development and religion. We analyse how such a methodology has been applied in an exercise by the UK Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) to facilitate a global dialogue on development and religion in different geographical contexts. After addressing some of the limits of the methodology of Laudato Si', we examine how Sen's normative conceptualisation of development and methodological proposal towards dialogue and reason about valuesincluding religious onescould complement some religious approaches and methodologies, such as in Laudato Si', to yield innovative proposals for engaging development and religion.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engaging development and religion: Methodological groundings

Deneulin

Zampini-Davies

2017

World Development

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“…Closely related to the above is what Hovland [33] identifies as the secularisation of project, an ideological stance advanced by Enlightenment thinkers, which stipulates a stern bifurcation of religion from politics in liberal democracies, and which eventually resonated into realignment and relegation of religion to the private sphere. By this, faith, particularly from Western perception, was regarded as an irrelevant issue as far as development was concerned.…”

Section: Faith and Work: The Discourse On Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Documenting Faith-Development Trajectory in Africa: Contributions and Contestations

Olutola

2019

SAJSSE

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This article focuses on faith and work particularly in Africa. It highlights the important role of faith-based organisations in development. Specifically, it reviews the history of faith-based social provisioning; however, particular attention is devoted to the contributions of faith-based organisations towards enhancing delivery of social services to the disadvantaged and vulnerable people in Africa. To compliment the foregoing, a comprehensive review of existing relevant literature on achievements and contradictions attributed to faith-based social provisioning is examined. In short, this article concludes that Faith-based Organisations, in line with their myriad social and developmental activities have become a veritable institution that caters for the vulnerable and disadvantaged people, particularly in remotes areas and societies where expenditure on public services has been cut by the governments.

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“…Communities of different faiths (or denominations within the shared faith) may fear they will be excluded or targeted for proselytization under the cover of development. Donors often share such fears and insist on the creation of artificial impermeable boundaries between ‘faith’ and ‘development’ activities, reinforcing the idea that both operate separately and independently (Aiken, 2010, James, 2011; Hovland, 2008). As Tomalin (2020) notes, donors have taken a ‘selective and normative’ approach to engaging with religion in development.…”

Section: Faith Identity and Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Potent Fuel? Faith Identity and Development Impact in World Vision Community Programming

Jennings

Clarke

Feeny

et al. 2020

J of Intl Development

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This paper explores the role of faith identity on impact in development by looking at the programming of a major international faith‐based development organisation (FBDO). It argues that faith identity rests not only in the internal projected identity of the FBDO but also on perceptions of that identity in the community, highlighting the role context plays in the formulation of faith identity and its impact. Secondly, the paper argues that FBDOs possess not only a faith identity but also a development one and that it is the interplay between both that allows for the creation of engagement and trust in interventions.

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Who’s Afraid of Religion? Tensions between ‘Mission’ and ‘Development’ in the Norwegian Mission Society

Cited by 24 publications

References 3 publications

Engaging development and religion: Methodological groundings

Engaging development and religion: Methodological groundings

Documenting Faith-Development Trajectory in Africa: Contributions and Contestations

A Potent Fuel? Faith Identity and Development Impact in World Vision Community Programming

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