ABOUT THIS BOOK

A Ghanaian scholar of religion argues that poverty is a particularly complex subject in traditional African cultures, where holistic worldviews unite life’s material and spiritual dimensions. A South African ethicist examines informal economies in Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya, and South Africa, looking at their ideological roots, social organization, and vulnerability to global capital. African American theologians offer ethnographic accounts of empowering religious rituals performed in churches in the United States, Jamaica, and South Africa. This important collection brings together these and other Pan-African perspectives on religion and poverty in Africa and the African diaspora.

Contributors from Africa and North America explore poverty’s roots and effects, the ways that experiences and understandings of deprivation are shaped by religion, and the capacity and limitations of religion as a means of alleviating poverty. As part of a collaborative project, the contributors visited Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa, as well as Jamaica and the United States. In each location, they met with clergy, scholars, government representatives, and NGO workers, and they examined how religious groups and community organizations address poverty. Their essays complement one another. Some focus on poverty, some on religion, others on their intersection, and still others on social change. A Jamaican scholar of gender studies decries the feminization of poverty, while a Nigerian ethicist and lawyer argues that the protection of human rights must factor into efforts to overcome poverty. A church historian from Togo examines the idea of poverty as a moral virtue and its repercussions in Africa, and a Tanzanian theologian and priest analyzes ujamaa, an African philosophy of community and social change. Taken together, the volume’s essays create a discourse of mutual understanding across linguistic, religious, ethnic, and national boundaries.

Contributors. Elizabeth Amoah, Kossi A. Ayedze, Barbara Bailey, Katie G. Cannon, Noel Erskine, Dwight N. Hopkins, Simeon O. Ilesanmi, Laurenti Magesa, Madipoane Masenya, Takatso A. Mofokeng, Esther M. Mombo, Nyambura J. Njoroge, Jacob Olupona, Peter J. Paris, Anthony B. Pinn, Linda E. Thomas, Lewin L. Williams

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Peter J. Paris is the Elmer G. Homrighausen Professor of Christian Social Ethics Emeritus at the Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of Virtues and Values: The African and African American Experience, The History of the Riverside Church in the City of New York, and The Spirituality of African Peoples: The Search for a Common Moral Discourse. Jacob Olupona is Professor of African Religious Traditions at the Harvard Divinity School.

REVIEWS

“The volume’s pragmatic emphasis will be especially useful for an audience ranging from experts to general readers who are seeking a constructive approach to the study of ethics, theology, human rights, and poverty. Recommended.” - S. A. Johnson, Choice

“[T]he collection as a whole is valuable for providing secular
developmentalists with insights into the importance of Africa’s cultural and religious heritage in devising policies to overcome the legacies of poverty.” - Kevin Ward, Leeds African Studies Bulletin

“The collection of essays based on a series of seminars, lectures, and conferences, was quite novel in seeking to present a distinctively Pan-African approach to the complex global discourse on poverty…. The book is a vital contribution to the wider discourse on poverty in Africa and the African diaspora…. [Which] all those working towards poverty alleviation must read.” - Afe Adogame, Anthropos

“The writers who contributed to Religion and Poverty used a diverse array of sources to support their arguments and to make intellectual connections…. Ultimately, [this book] offers a valuable contribution to the discourse on the role of religion in both creating and sustaining poverty. At the same time, this collection offers an honest and thoughtful view into the possibilities of religious organizations and their role in alleviating poverty throughout the world.” - Youseef J. Carter, The Journal of African American History

“[T]he collection as a whole is valuable for providing secular developmentalists with insights into the importance of Africa’s cultural and religious heritage in devising policies to overcome the legacies of poverty.”

-- Kevin Ward Leeds African Studies Bulletin

“The collection of essays based on a series of seminars, lectures, and conferences, was quite novel in seeking to present a distinctively Pan-African approach to the complex global discourse on poverty…. The book is a vital contribution to the wider discourse on poverty in Africa and the African diaspora…. [Which] all those working towards poverty alleviation must read.”

-- Afe Adogame Anthropos

“The volume’s pragmatic emphasis will be especially useful for an audience ranging from experts to general readers who are seeking a constructive approach to the study of ethics, theology, human rights, and poverty. Recommended.”

-- S. A. Johnson Choice

“The writers who contributed to Religion and Poverty used a diverse array of sources to support their arguments and to make intellectual connections…. Ultimately, [this book] offers a valuable contribution to the discourse on the role of religion in both creating and sustaining poverty. At the same time, this collection offers an honest and thoughtful view into the possibilities of religious organizations and their role in alleviating poverty throughout the world.”

-- Youseef J. Carter Journal of African American History

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Bosadi

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