ABSTRACT
Introduction The relationship between religion and economic development is evident both historically and in the present at multiple sites around the world. However, the precise contours of this relationship vary according to local histories and politics. As this chapter illustrates, there is no necessary or causal relationship between these two domains for apprehending and representing human action and relationships. In some parts of Africa, the failure of economic development and the retreat of the state’s ability to guarantee social welfare have led religion to prove a refuge from the dislocations of development gone astray. Elsewhere in Africa and in Latin America, the retreat of the state and neoliberal economic restructuring have opened spaces for faith-based organizations and religious NGOs to take an increasingly active role in economic development. In Southeast Asia, prosperity religions, which preach that wealth will be granted to those who demonstrate exaggerated faith, flourish in countries which have experienced economic stagnation (e.g., the Philippines) or crisis (e.g., Thailand). In East Asia, economic development has spurred the development of new religious practices as well as the resuscitation of old ones. Contrary to common media and even scholarly representations of Islam as looking to the past and embracing outmoded institutions (Kuran 2011), across the Muslim world there is evidence of creative attempts to redeploy religion to address past economic failures and create new developmental paradigms. This chapter sheds light on these phenomena, as it illustrates the myriad articulations of religion and economic development.
