Religion and Volunteering, 2015 Complex, contested and ambiguous relationships Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies Series

Religion is considered a key predictor of volunteering: the more religious people are, the more likely they are to volunteer. This positive association enjoys significant support in current research; in fact, it could be considered the ?default perspective? on the relationship between both phenomena. In this book, the authors claim that, although the dominant approach is legitimate and essential, it nonetheless falls short in grasping the full complexity of the interaction between religion and volunteering. It needs to be recognized that there are tensions between religion and volunteering, and that these tensions are intensifying as a result of the changing meaning and role of religion in society. Therefore, the central aim and contribution of this book is to demonstrate that the relationship between religion and volunteering is not univocal but differentiated, ambiguous and sometimes provocative. By introducing the reader to a much wider landscape of perspectives, this volume offers a richer, more complex and variable understanding. Apart from the established positive causality, the authors examine tensions between religion and volunteering from the perspective of religious obligation, religious change, processes of secularization and notions of post-secularity. They further explore how actions that are considered altruistic, politically neutral and motivated by religious beliefs can be used for political reasons. This volume opens up the field to new perspectives on religious actors and on how religion and volunteering are enacted outside Western liberal and Christian societies. It emphasizes interdisciplinary perspectives, including theology, philosophy, sociology, political science, anthropology and architecture.

Chapter 1. Religion and volunteering: Complex, contested and ambiguous relationships.- Chapter 2. Christian calling and volunteering.- Chapter 3. If I am only for myself, who am I? Volunteering and righteousness in Judaism.- Chapter 4. Philanthropic virtue.- Chapter 5. Religiosity and formal volunteering in global perspective.- Chapter 6. A cross-national examination of motivation to volunteer: Religious context, national value patterns, and nonprofit regimes.- Chapter 7. Volunteering among church attendees in Australia: Individual and collective dimensions.- Chapter 8. Lost and found in secularization: A religious perspective on the meaning of volunteering.- Chapter 9. Making church happen: Architectural methods to transform Flanders’ parish churches into civic collectives.- Chapter 10. Restorative justice and volunteering in a secular age.- Chapter 11. Short-Term Mission Voluntarism and the Post-secular Imaginary.- Chapter 12. Religion and social solidarity: A pragmatist approach.- Chapter 13. “Your prayer moves God”: On the relation between voluntarism, the emergent Charismatic movement in Beirut and social capital.- Chapter 14. Faith-based organizations and civic engagement in Egypt: Can FBOs be agents for change?.- Chapter 15. ‘Go back to our values’: Restoring symbolic hegemony through promoting ‘volunteering’.- Chapter 16. Volunteering in religious communities: What does it bring to society? Calculating Social Yield.

Lesley Hustinx is assistant professor at the Department of Sociology of Ghent University

Johan Von Essen is Doctor of Divinity and Researcher at the Institute for Civil Society Studies, Ersta Sköndal University College

Jacques Haers is director of academic affairs at the University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp

Sara Mels is project-coordinator at the University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp