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Religion and Sustainable Development: The “Secular Distinction” in Development Policy and Its Implication for Development Cooperation with Religious Communities

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Abstract

Development policy and research increasingly recognize the potential contribution of religious communities to sustainable development. The emerging discourse on religion and development, however, is contingent on Western discursive contexts that operate on the basis of a “secular distinction” between the religious and the secular. Development is located in the secular sphere and the resultant approach to religion is functional. We show this for the case of German development policy by investigating key policy documents on religion and development. The secular notion of development stands in contrast to the perspective of development by religious communities in “developing countries”, which we highlight using the example of African Initiated Churches. In these churches’ view, people’s spiritual and material needs are intertwined, and sustainable development as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals cannot be separated from religious dimensions of life. Notions of development, we hence argue, constitute forms of situated knowledge dependent on their discursive contexts. If development cooperation is to engage with religious communities at the level of values, ideas and beliefs, it must also engage with their notions of development as ends of mutual partnership.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Kaag and Saint-Lary (2011).

  2. 2.

    Ver Beek (2000).

  3. 3.

    Belshaw et al. (2001).

  4. 4.

    Haynes (2009); Holenstein (2010).

  5. 5.

    Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (2016a).

  6. 6.

    Jones and Petersen (2011); Swart and Nell (2016).

  7. 7.

    Bompani (2010).

  8. 8.

    Freeman (2012).

  9. 9.

    Bowers-Du Toit (2016); Heuser (2015).

  10. 10.

    Beck and Gundersen (2016); Öhlmann and Hüttel (2018).

  11. 11.

    Jones and Petersen (2011).

  12. 12.

    Gräb (2016).

  13. 13.

    Deneulin and Bano (2009); Jones and Petersen (2011).

  14. 14.

    United Nations (2015).

  15. 15.

    Ver Beek (2000).

  16. 16.

    Lunn (2009), p. 947.

  17. 17.

    Bompani (2015), p. 101.

  18. 18.

    Gifford (1994), p. 521.

  19. 19.

    Steinke (2020); Ver Beek (2000).

  20. 20.

    Mtata (2013).

  21. 21.

    Ferris (2011).

  22. 22.

    Gräb (2016), p. 371.

  23. 23.

    Gräb (2016).

  24. 24.

    Ver Beek (2000).

  25. 25.

    Lloyd and Viefhues-Bailey (2015), pp. 17–18. This becomes especially clear when the often-used concept of world religions is interrogated more closely, see Masuzawa (2005). As Ziai and Eckert argue, the development discourse more broadly carries forward—simultaneously to significant changes—continuities from colonial “civilizing missions” (Ziai 2016; Eckert 2015).

  26. 26.

    See e.g. Deneulin and Bano (2009).

  27. 27.

    Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (2016a).

  28. 28.

    Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (2016a), p. 12.

  29. 29.

    Beimdiek et al. (2018).

  30. 30.

    Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (2015b).

  31. 31.

    “2.1 Die Maßnahmen sollen insbesonderearmen und benachteiligten Menschen und Gruppen zugutekommen (Option für die Armen); grundsätzlich werden dabei keine gesellschaftlichen oder religiösen Gruppen ausgegrenzt;Voraussetzungen dafür schaffen, dass Selbsthilfefähigkeit entwickelt und Eigenverantwortung gestärkt wird;dazu beitragen, dass die armen und benachteiligten Menschen ihre Anliegen und Rechte in Staat und Gesellschaft aktiv vertreten können;gemeinnützige Partner–/ Trägerstrukturen und Organisationen der Bevölkerung in die Lage versetzen, die Armen qualifiziert dabei zu unterstützen, ihre Lebenssituation zu verbessern und die dafür notwendigen Vorhaben zu planen, durchzuführen, zu begleiten und daraus zu lernen;geeignet sein, entwicklungswichtige Anliegen benachteiligter Gruppen zu stärken und deren Durchsetzung auf nationaler und transnationaler Ebene zu fördern, Handlungsspielräume zu erweitern sowie zu Frieden und Versöhnung beizutragen.” Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (2015b), pp. 2–3.

  32. 32.

    “Maßnahmen im Bereich der kirchlichen Verkündigung sind von der Förderung […] ausgeschlossen […].”, Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (2015b), p. 3.

  33. 33.

    E.g. Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (2016b, c).

  34. 34.

    Garling argues that part of this paradigm is the exoticist othering of partner countries and their citizens as highly and essentially religious while the very own position is framed as a neutral and enlightened one, including the ability to properly separate politics from religion (Garling 2013, pp. 113–117).

  35. 35.

    Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (2017a).

  36. 36.

    Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (2017a), p. 8.

  37. 37.

    Interestingly, this stands in contrast to the imagery of the ministry’s initiative, which features ritualistic and aesthetic aspects of religious communities in colourful illustrations. See e.g. the ministry’s promotional video “Religion and Development” (Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung 2017b) as well as the brochuress as partners for development cooperation” (Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung 2016b) and “The role of religion in German development policy” (Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung 2015a).

  38. 38.

    We include African independent as well as African Pentecostal churches in this definition.

  39. 39.

    Öhlmann et al. (2016a, b, 2017); Frost et al. (2018)). In the following, some interviewees are listed by (their preferred) name and some anonymously. This is done in accordance with the interviewees’ preferences.

  40. 40.

    Interview with Elijah Daramola, South Africa, 16 February 2016.

  41. 41.

    As reported in Öhlmann et al. (2016b), p. 6.

  42. 42.

    Öhlmann et al. (2016a).

  43. 43.

    Interview with a church leader, Nigeria, 07 October 2017.

  44. 44.

    Interview with Elias Mashabela, South Africa, 04 March 2016.

  45. 45.

    Interview with Daniel Okoh, Nigeria, 03 October 2017.

  46. 46.

    Interview with Holymike, South Africa, 07 March 2016.

  47. 47.

    Interview with Holymike, South Africa, 07 March 2016.

  48. 48.

    Interview with Don Makumbani, South Africa, 08 March 2016.

  49. 49.

    Interview with George Afrifa, Ghana, 19 September 2017.

  50. 50.

    Narayan (2001), p. 40.

  51. 51.

    Adogame (2016), pp. 2–3.

  52. 52.

    Feldtkeller points out that “‘secular’ discourses, as much as ‘religious’ discourses, are a specific form of pragmatically creating reality through language. From a discourse analytic perspective there is no reason to a priori consider religious language pragmatics inferior to secular ones” (Feldtkeller 2014, p. 122, authors’ translation).

  53. 53.

    Freeman (2012); Gifford (2015); Masondo (2013); Oosthuizen (1988).

  54. 54.

    Freeman (2012), p. 9.

  55. 55.

    Interview with Rufus Okikiola Ositelu, Germany, 26 May 2017.

  56. 56.

    Interview with Sello Simon Rasemana, South Africa, 03 March 2016.

  57. 57.

    Günther (1993); Deressa (undated).

  58. 58.

    Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (1972).

  59. 59.

    Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (1972); cf. Günther (1993).

  60. 60.

    The Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (1972)) document makes a similar point.

  61. 61.

    Thomsen (2017), p. 28.

  62. 62.

    This graphical representation is schematic and does not account for the complex, correlative entanglements of beliefs, values, ideas, practices and policies of the religion and development nexus. It is also itself an expression of a functional approach to religion, asking for the optimal level of engagement with religious communities to the end of achieving—the secular concept of—sustainable development. Nonetheless it is indicative of the approach in official international development politics and brings to the fore the inherent contradiction in any approaches seeking to engage with religious communities on an ideological level on the basis of the secular distinction.

  63. 63.

    Thomsen (2017), p. 28.

  64. 64.

    Thomsen (2017), p. 29.

  65. 65.

    Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (2016b), p. 7.

  66. 66.

    Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (2016b), p. 7.

  67. 67.

    Thomsen (2017), p. 31.

  68. 68.

    Eisenstadt (1968), p. 10.

  69. 69.

    Freeman (2012); Öhlmann et al. (2016a); Turner (1980).

  70. 70.

    Thomsen (2017), p. 29.

  71. 71.

    Frost et al. (2018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Philipp Öhlmann, Stefan Hunglinger, Wilhelm Gräb & Marie-Luise Frost

  2. University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Philipp Öhlmann & Marie-Luise Frost

  3. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

    Philipp Öhlmann

  4. Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    Wilhelm Gräb

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  1. Philipp Öhlmann
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  2. Stefan Hunglinger
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Correspondence to Philipp Öhlmann .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Theology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Julian Hensold

  2. Faculty of Theology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Jordan Kynes

  3. Research Programme on Religious Communities and Sustainable Development, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin,, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

    Philipp Öhlmann

  4. Department of Socio-Cultural Diversity, Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Lower-Saxony, Germany

    Vanessa Rau

  5. Faculty of Theology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Rosa Coco Schinagl

  6. Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Adela Taleb

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Öhlmann, P., Hunglinger, S., Gräb, W., Frost, ML. (2020). Religion and Sustainable Development: The “Secular Distinction” in Development Policy and Its Implication for Development Cooperation with Religious Communities. In: Hensold, J., Kynes, J., Öhlmann, P., Rau, V., Schinagl, R., Taleb, A. (eds) Religion in Motion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41388-0_8

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