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The article debates on the concept of poverty, trying to emphasize its theological meanings from a Christian perspective. Discussing in its first part the notion of poverty and its theoretical classifications, in its second part the article evaluates poverty from an ethical-religious point of view, showing some practical theological consequences. In its last part the article considers the relationship between poverty and human dignity from the Christian view, starting from the concept of imago Dei and emphasizing love as the main determinant in the fight against poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More and more people are becoming aware of the fact that there is no world crisis as serious as the alarming extent of poverty and its consequences. Various approaches have resulted in different concepts about poverty being developed. This means that a fundamental distinction must be made between objective and subjective views. Poverty has many causes, including discrimination, unequal distribution of, and access to resources, as well as social and cultural stigmatisation. At the same time, poverty can also be a violation of the human dignity. Responsibility for human rights both at the national and international level always lies with the state; it has the duty to guarantee people's rights. The people in the poorest regions of the world can appeal to the human rights not before of the community of states, but only in their own country, if it has guaranteed the respect of the human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Ancient Orient it was the king's high duty to take care of the poor. The same expectation existed also in Israel, but Israel knew that God JHWH himself took care of the poor and punished those who, although they were rich, did not mind people in suffering. In Israel there was the ideal that no poor should exist, that is why the prophets attacked the rich people in a period of welfare, if they ignored the poor. When Israel was under foreign rule, the whole people understood themselves as „poor‟ and the support for the outcast grew significantly. Jesus blesses the „poor‟ and gives them a new impulse, a real perspective. The Christians underline the fact that it is not only about eradicating poverty, but also about the communion with Christ and with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of human dignity is closely tied to the idea of self-esteem. According to Avishai Margalit a „decent society‟ is characterized especially by its social institutions that perceive citizens as self-determined subjects of their own actions and not as objects of external decisions. Self-esteem means in this sense understanding the fact that the personal interests must be seen by the others as appropriate and of the same value. This central theme is closely connected to the modern republican concept of freedom as non-domination. If this concept is related to the configuration of the market economy and to the eradication of poverty, then we come to the idea of socio-economic civic rights, which protect the citizens' status from arbitrary interference by the state or the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate upon development aid policy shows that the material parameter is not enough to measure prosperity and that the effort to overcome poverty must consider a variety of complex factors. Amartya Sen's capability approach has given decisive impulses to this debate and it has changed the view on the relationship between poverty, freedom and development. The research project „Human Dignity and Poverty in Romania‟ intends to find out to what extent a reinforcement of the human dignity could contribute to overcoming poverty. After a discussion about the usefulness of this term in the ethical debates, a distinction between the fundamental and empirical human dignity will be suggested and the empirical human dignity will be again subdivided in internal and external factors. The operationalization of the latter factors with respect to empirical investigations is supported by the content-related unfolding in five dimensions: freedom, relationality, living standard, creativity, values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]