Identifying Conceptual Baggage: Remarks From a Long History of Religions and Development

Transcription

1 Identifying Conceptual Baggage: Remarks From a Long History of Religions and Development Dr Jörg Haustein Senior Lecturer in Religions in Africa SOAS University of London joerg.haustein@soas.ac.uk

2 Two questions Improving the lives of the poor is a worthy pursuit that is difficult to argue against. However, as an international priority, it is a relatively recent phenomenon dating back to the end of World War II. Clarke, Handbook of Research on Development and Religion, 2013, p. 2 1) Study a longer genealogy of development (and religion)? Sixty years ago, development and religion were regarded in the West as emphatically separate concerns. Haynes, Religion and Development, 2007, p. 1 2) How to account for changing role of religion in development? need for a broader & conceptual history of R&D 2

3 The Colonial Civilising Mission : Religion and Development as Agents of Empire Thomas Fowell Buxton ( ) The African Slave Trade and Its Remedy, 1840 Let missionaries and schoolmasters, the plough and the spade, go together, and agriculture will flourish; the avenues to legitimate commerce will be opened; confidence between man and man will be inspired; whilst civilization will advance as the natural effect, and Christianity operate as the proximate cause of this happy change. Buxton, The African Slave Trade,p. 457f. 3

4 The Colonial Civilising Mission : Religion and Development as Agents of Empire 4

5 Truman s Point 4 Speech: Development justified in religious tones Truman oath of office, 1949 Bible open to Matthew 5:3 11 Vers 6: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Our allies are the millions who hunger and thirst after righteousness. [ ] Steadfast in our faith in the Almighty, we will advance toward a world where man's freedom is secure. [ ] With God's help, the future of mankind will be assured in a world of justice, harmony, and peace. Inaugural address

6 Lewis: Religion Fundamental to Economic Development Sir William Arthur Lewis ( ) After all, social change results mainly from what people do, and this in turn is mainly the result of what they believe. Religion permeates our beliefs because religious instruction (whether formal or informal) begins while we are still on our mother s knees. What we learn late in life for ourselves we can often unlearn by argument or demonstration, but what we have absorbed in childhood is much harder to cast out. The Theory of Economic Growth, 1955, p

7 Rostow: Religion absent, but explains values Walt Whitman Rostow ( ) The Stages of Economic Growth, 1960 No mention of religion, except: 1) Christian roots of progressive, democratic development For our civilization, we have agreed it was most memorably stated in the New Testament with its intense concern for the relationship of a man to himself and the next man to him, with its distrust of logical systems and uniform solutions, its parables radiating off their ambiguous meanings, its biting conflicting admontions, and its insistence that wisdom is only wise if, as situations change, what is wise also changes. Such a view of things appears to have been in the minds of those who invented democracy Morison as quoted by Rostow, p ) Issue of spiritual boredom/stagnation in final stage of mass consumption 7

8 The Return of Religion 1996 Charitable Choices in Reform Welfare Act 2001 Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Act 2002 Center for Faith Based and Community Initiatives 2004 USAID ruling end of discrimination against religious providers 8

9 Religion and Development Today Benefits of a longer history of R&D 1) Elucidate the Christian foundation of certain aspects of development thought 2) Highlight deep-seated structures in relationship between states and FBOs/NGOS (e.g. Manji/O Coill) 3) Critically assess the rediscovery of religion in development (& political thought) And as soon as we consider the ideology of development, some intriguing problems urge themselves. The point is: when we realise that development is some kind of a substitute for the progressive, linear (and liberal) concept of history, we simply must become suspicious! In particular, when we reckon with the well-known interpretation that this concept is ultimately a secularised version of a Judeo-Christian idea that the course of history is continuously moving forward to salvation. Salemink, van Harskamp, Giri The Development of Religion / The Religion of Development, 2004, p. 2 9