This dissertation argues that Eastern Orthodox theology is a framework for multidimensional social change or improvement and can inform, and be informed by the multi-disciplinary social science field of development studies. This claim will be examined by analyzing the Trinitarian theology of the Orthodox theologian Dumitru Staniloae in relation to the writings of Nobel Economist Amartya Sen and his ‘capability approach’. The argument begins by justifying EO’s interaction with development studies based on her anthropological optimism. Critical is that supernatural revelation stands very close to and builds on natural revelation. A Trinitarian theological anthropology then provides a rationale for, and integration of, three key concepts in the social sciences: agency, solidarity, and structures. This analytical framework is then used to assess the challenges of post-Communist contexts, where most Orthodox live. The Communist downfall, it is argued, involved a failure to incorporate each of these dimensions in human development. This analysis then serves to test the adequacy of, and reveal weaknesses in, Amartya Sen’s freedom-focused social evaluation framework known as the capability approach. The dissertation proceeds with examining Orthodox salvation as movement from Being, to Well-being, to Eternal-being where Well-being is, notably, the exercise of agency to develop the potentials given in Being. Agency is not individualistic, but is structured into the virtues of solidarity and incorporates the related notion of phronesis (practical reason). The virtue tradition is then postulated as a promising link between theology and development studies. The virtue tradition is analyzed in its classical background, modern human development, as well as both Protestantism and Catholicism to facilitate a comparison with Eastern Orthodoxy. This analysis shows that Orthodoxy offers a theological framework for human development in that she gives priority of practical reason to contemplation, makes virtually no separation between grace and nature, and provides a relevant method for synergizing salvation history with action on behalf of human development.

The glory of God is humanity fully alive: exploring Eastern Orthodoxy as a resource for human development in conversation with the capability approach

This chapter compares motivation of those mobilizing for violent conflict under a religious identity and those mobilizing under an ethnic one.1 First, I consider why a particular identity is chosen as the mobilizing identity, where there is a choice. Secondly, I review motivations of religious and ethnic leaders, or mobilizers, and of followers or mobilizees.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/57a08b6ced915d3cfd000ce8/workingpaper70.pdf

Religion versus Ethnicity as a Source of Mobilization: Are There Differences?

Insecurity and Welfare Regimes in Asia, Africa and Latin America: Social Policy in Development Contexts, Ian Gough, Geof Wood, Armando Barrientos, Philippa Bevan, Peter David, Grahamr Room (Eds.). Cambridge University Press (2004)

Education and development: Thirty years of continuity and change

The Masjid Council for Community Advancement provided zakat funds (compulsory alms giving) and training facilities to very poor people in Bangladesh through the Hasana project to improve their living standard. The prime objective of the study was to assess the impact of zakat funds on household income and expenditure. Propensity score matching technique was used to assess the impact of the Hasana project on the households who received zakat. This study shows that income and expenditure of the zakat-receiving households increased due to project intervention.

Can Zakat System Alleviate Rural Poverty in Bangladesh? A Propensity Score Matching Approach

Religion and development have been uncomfortable bedfellows for decades yet development strategies designed by Western donors are prescribed for the very people who are often religiously motivated in their daily lives. Attempts have been made in the recent past to restore some of that imbalance by incorporating cultural issues and religious values into the international development policy network, but hostilities remain. This article argues that development practices continue to embrace a neoliberal framework which limits other ideological viewpoints. Setting an Islamic context where greater emphasis is laid on values, it asserts that in a country such as Bangladesh, Islamic solutions to development also have a utilitarian function in welfare terms. It introduces an Islamic model to development based around the disbursement of zakah called the parshi and looks at how it contrasts with the dominant NGO model in the country.

Tasmia Mesbahuddin

Papers

Religion in Development: An Islamic Model Emerging in Bangladesh