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Religion and Development in the Global South pp 1–39Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Introduction: The Nexus Between Religion and Development

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Abstract

Draws attention to the fact that religion has been neglected by economists owing to its ‘soft’ nature. The chapter focuses on Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism—the first systematic link between religion and the economy; proceeds to argue that mainstream economic analysis of religion has grave limitations. By contrast, the ideas of W Arthur Lewis and Gunnar Myrdal in regard to religion and economic and social development are vital for the Global South. There is a discussion of certain crucial issues that are affected by religion and culture, namely the role of women, corruption, and political freedom, which are examined in the ensuing chapters with respect to the religions examined.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Pew estimates 2.2 billion are Christians (32% of the world’s population), 1.6 billion Muslims (23%), 1 billion Hindus (15%), nearly 500 million Buddhists (7%) and 14 million Jews (0.2%) around the world as of 2010. In addition, more than 400 million people (6%) practice various folk or traditional religions, including African traditional religions, Chinese folk religions, Native American religions and Australian aboriginal religions. An estimated 58 million people belong to other religions, including the Baha’i faith, Jainism, Sikhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Tenrikyo, Wicca and Zoroastrianism (Pew Research Center 2012, p. 9).

  2. 2.

    Giddens (1973, ch. 9) provides an excellent analysis of Weber’s path-breaking thesis.

  3. 3.

    Unsurprisingly, Weber’s bold and controversial thesis has been challenged over the years. Giddens (1976, pp. 11–12), in his introduction to Weber’s book, summarises the main criticisms as does Green (1959).

  4. 4.

    Clark’s thesis has been subject to robust criticism—see, for example, Deirdre McCloskey (2010), ch 30–32.

  5. 5.

    In Religion and Development: Conflict or Cooperation? by Jeffrey Haynes (2007), the main focus is on faith-based organisations and its overall thrust is to shine a positive light on religious organisations vis-à-vis development; the issue of religion and development being in conflict is pretty much neglected. The title of the book is, therefore, misleading. The same approach applies to Deneulin and Rakodi (2011), and their Department for International Development-funded “Religions and Development” programme at the University of Birmingham; and also to Gerrie ter Haar’s edited collection Religion and Development: Ways of Transforming the World (2011).

  6. 6.

    Anderson (1988) examines Adam Smith’s economic approach to religion.

  7. 7.

    For a survey of the literature see, for example, Iannaccone (1998), Barro and McCleary (2003), Noland (2005), McCleary and Barro (2006). Dixit and Grossman (1984) amusingly term religions as “directly unproductive prophet-seeking activities”. However their paper and that of Bhagwati and Srinivasan (1986) do not shed much light for our purposes.

  8. 8.

    This was also the approach of a World Bank report published in 2007 by Katherine Marshall and Marisa van Saanen entitled Development and Faith: Where Mind, Heart, and Soul Work Together, with a foreword by Lord Carey.

  9. 9.

    Following the Millennium Declaration, eight “Millennium Development Goals” were set out, to be achieved by 2015: (1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; (2) Achieve universal primary education; (3) Promote gender equality and empower women; (4) Reduce child mortality; (5) Improve maternal health; (6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; (7) Ensure environmental sustainability; and (8) Develop a global partnership for development.

  10. 10.

    In The Bottom Billion, Paul Collier (2007) examines various reasons (including corruption, political instability and resource management) for the seemingly intractable poverty of the 50 or so poorest countries—the primary target of the Millennium Declaration—but, like the international agencies, neglects to discuss religion and culture as important factors.

  11. 11.

    The 17 SDGs are: no poverty; zero hunger; good health and well-being; quality education; gender equality; clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; climate action; life below water; life on land; peace, justice and strong institutions; and partnership for the goals (UN 2015).

  12. 12.

    We do not discuss Buddhism despite its having 500 million followers as there is a dearth of material on the economic aspects of this religion. Note that Confucianism in China is a special case given that religions have largely been proscribed by the state since the Communist revolution of 1949 (Riskin 1987).

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  1. University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

    Rumy Hasan

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Hasan, R. (2017). Introduction: The Nexus Between Religion and Development. In: Religion and Development in the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57063-1_1

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