Religion in Development: Rewriting the Secular Script

by Séverine Deneulin, Masooda Bano

Development practice is full of examples of the importance of religion in the lives of people in developing countries. However, religion has largely remained unexplored in development studies. This timely new book aims to fill that gap. The authors expertly review how religion has been treated in the evolution of development thought, how it has been conceptualised in the social sciences, and highlights the major deficiencies of the assumption of secularism.

The book argues that development theory and practice needs to rewrite its dominant script regarding its treatment of religion, a script which has so far been heavily inscribed in the secular tradition. It puts forward an understanding of religions as that religions rest on central thesis and teachings which never cease to be re-interpreted in the light of the social, political and historical context. In addition to providing a conceptual framework for analysing the role of religion in development, the book provides numerous empirical examples drawn from the Christian and Islamic religious traditions. This comprehensive new guide to this key issue is essential for students, development thinkers and practitioners who wish to understand better the role that religion plays in development processes and outcomes.

Genres: Religion

184 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2009

About the author

Her research is in the area of development ethics, broadly defined as a critical ethical reflection on the meaning of ‘progress’ and the means to achieve it. Most of her research has focused on the works in ethics and economics by Indian economist and philosopher Amartya Sen, and the Catholic social tradition. Her regional expertise is Latin America, and she has had extensive academic collaboration with universities in the region. Her research interests include natural resource extraction and global value chains, the role of social movements and faith-based actors in reducing inequality and creating more sustainable economies.

Reviews

[Micah Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deneulin repositions religion in the development studies discussion, moving it from the outside to the inside. Or, better said, she discusses how it has always already been there, albeit overlooked and distorted. Note the title: it does not read Religion and Development, but Religion in Development. This is not petty, grammatical nit-picking. The “and” conjunction, previously the default in development discourse, is indicative of an almost complete disregard for religion in the first 50 years of development scholarship, with a neglect in practice almost as pronounced (the ice starts to break only around the late 1990s and early 2000s).

At that time (and still far too much today), religion was viewed merely as a variable which relates to secular development ends: as something instrumental for development practitioners to leverage (e.g., imposing a “Protestant work ethic”), a hurdle which they must overcome (e.g., religiously-encoded sexism), or an inconvenience which they must negotiate (e.g., appeasing local clergy/gurus/shamans). But religion is not just a Trojan horse that development practitioners can use to smuggle their imperialistic agendas into unsuspecting communities; neither is religion a bundle of antiquated cultural norms that must be dominated for local stakeholders’ own good; nor yet is religion a regrettable line-item that irritates contract negotiations.

Deneulin instead demonstrates how religion is inextricable from development. Many development practitioners and most local stakeholders have conceptions of the Good that are openly informed by their religious traditions. (Those who don’t profess a religion still have conceptions of the Good which are influenced by such traditions, religion coming to bear on their decisions and goals either way. The point stands, though, even if we just consider professed religious adherence.) That religiously-inspired conception of the Good then shapes their understanding of development and poverty, informing answers to the following questions among others: what are the adverse conditions that development is seeking to alleviate? How should nations and communities correspondingly transform? Instead of just negating unfreedom, what are tangible “goods” that development can pursue?

As religion influences ethics (A influences B), and ethics influence an understanding of and approach towards development and poverty (B influences C), then religion influences an understanding of and approach towards development and poverty (A influences C). Pretty quickly, then, the distinction between these begins to dissolve, becoming provisional in light of their interrelatedness. Religion in ethics. Ethics in development. Religion in development.

In this way, Deneulin is not so much pulling up a chair for religion at the development table; rather, she is calling everyone’s attention to the fact that religion has always already been sitting there, and it is high time to address it. (This same ethical and religious restructuring, this shifting of awareness, is also underway in other social sciences). Deneulin’s arguments and their implications are critical and prescient, as both the development dialogue on religion and the operation of faith-based development organizations have exploded over the past 20 years.

While religion is a transformative force within development, the relationship is not one-sided. Deneulin argues that true respect for religion acknowledges that religious traditions are dynamic; they are responsive and responsible to changes in the world around them. Religious ideals and beliefs are only ever relevant when they are embodied, and they are only ever embodied in a world that is messy and complex. This world is shaped by turbulent historical, economic, and political processes, understood through arbitrary philosophies, and interfaces with shifting cultures. All these forces influence how communities of believers interpret their religious tradition and what it means to live it out in real contexts. Religion is not a glass-orb that must be protected from the world; it is a phenomenon and experience which takes place in the world.

If we get wide-eyed when development broaches these complex, multidisciplinary concerns, then we misunderstood development in the first place. Development, like all other structures, is a discipline which bears a web of commitments and values from which it makes a host of exclusions. To disregard this structural reality of development is to demonstrate a compromised, partial commitment to uplifting the marginalized. True justice for those who need it most requires that we call out the commitments and exclusions, seek to understand them, and allow them to deconstruct. To Deneulin, this means seeking earnestly to understand various religious commitments rather than calling on a shallow modernity or a nearsighted version of postmodernism to pretend like those commitments are irrelevant. Religion in Development is a practice in this honesty about the beliefs, traditions, and values that inform our study and action. It is an opening-up of development, a deeper recognition of what development is and an expansion of what it can be. Other disciplines and domains should take note.

"there is no separation between religion and development. Development is what adherents to a religion do because of who they are and what they believe in."

[Ruchinilo Kemp · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book sheds light on the 'other world' for the secularist and the 'sacred world' for the religious. However, it is a perspective both the traditions have to understand. I am glad it kindled my interest and passion for the subject area of 'religion and development' with new vigor.