Search

Although often overlooked by mainstream accounts of political theology and ecocriticism in the Global North, powerful visions of an ecopolis have been emerging in Latin America. In this article, we review the status of mainstream approaches to notions such as subject, citizen, and personal dignity and put them in a critical dialogue with Latin American Ecofeminist Political Theologies (LAEPT). We argue that those notions, often conceived from a Western and anthropocentric perspective, show their limits when interrogated from the perspective of LAEPT. Accordingly, we suggest that their main contribution lies not only in their critique of the Western paradigm but also in advancing alternative conceptions of an ecologically conscious political community that considers the Earth as sacred, and nature as a reflection of the divine. We conclude that such conceptions can also be seen at work in the rights of nature enshrined in the so-called new Latin American Constitutionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A noticeable shift has been recently observed in Western-based Pentecostal mission agencies’ activities in mainland Southeast Asia. Where once these organizations avoided a visible priority on social justice as being at odds with their understanding of mission, the funding for and implementation of such programs has increased dramatically for the last two decades. This shift in focus is best understood by considering the motivations for this work and the perceived differences between evangelism and development work. This paper explores the motivations of these agencies for engaging in international development, and in particular the extent to which development programs are seen by these agencies as a strategy for proselytization and the extent to which they are conducted out of other humanitarian motivations. The research is based on a phenomenological literature survey and new interview data exploring development operations of western-based Pentecostal mission organizations in mainland Southeast Asia. Analysis of these data challenges preconceived notions of a distinction between motives of evangelism and humanitarian concern. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In a case study on suburban churches the author describes how religious ideas, material resources and relationships of trust together form capital that enables and limits the civic engagement of the churches. The case study is based on ethnographic research in the newly built suburb of Leidsche Rijn in the Netherlands. The author concludes that a focus on the combination of different forms of capital available in congregational networks helps to obtain a better understanding of the often noted positive relationship between religion and civic engagement. The study shows that capital has an ambiguous influence: it enables and limits civic engagement. Researchers should therefore not be overly positive about the effects of social capital. They should also be aware of the ‘essential contestedness’ of civic engagement. The way civic engagement actually works on an empirical level calls into question any easy definition that researchers may devise. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]