Article

'I thought this was a Christian thing?' Exploring virtuous and exclusionary cycles in faith-based social action

Details

Citation

Pathak P & McGhee D (2015) 'I thought this was a Christian thing?' Exploring virtuous and exclusionary cycles in faith-based social action. Community Development Journal, 50 (1), pp. 40-54. https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bst089

Abstract
The role of faith groups as welfare providers has received notable attention in the past few years as religious groups have become increasingly active in the voluntary sector. Developing Baker's ideas on ‘local performative theologies’, we examine data from semi-structured interviews focusing on Christian interdenominational networks and forms of collaboration which underpin faith-based projects in a city in the South of England. Our particular focus is on the development of a qualitative understanding of city-wide interdenominational networks and their role in sustaining faith-based projects. We find that while there is a discernible shift towards faith through praxis, there has been insufficient attention to virtuous and exclusionary circuits of networks and collaboration which consolidate boundaries of inclusion and exclusion between faith groups.

Journal
Community Development Journal: Volume 50, Issue 1

StatusPublished
FundersUniversity of Southampton
Publication date31/01/2015
Publication date online10/02/2014
Date accepted by journal10/02/2014
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/33712
ISSN0010-3802
eISSN1468-2656

People (1)

Professor Derek McGhee

Professor Derek McGhee

Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences