Does Faith Have A Place In Development Theory?

Discussion

Does Faith have a place in Development Theory?

Within the sphere of psychology, religious development has always been a major topic of interest since the beginning of this domain. Several researches have been done focusing on the developmental theory that has indicated a severe change in the complexity in both the behavioral and cognitive growth (Andrade 2014). However, the Faith Development Theory of James Fowler has been considered to be the most powerful framework with this field. The concept of the development debate was initially introduced in 1949, but has always been debated until a single explanation as to its meaning came (Nicholas 2014. In the initial stage, the term development was considered to be a concept in the economic field. Over the course of time, the concept of development has evolved and outgrew from the economic concept and included other concepts under an umbrella term. Later, the term development has been described as the procedure of enlarging the choice of people. However, the debate continued around having an exact definition of development. The concept of faith have included with the developmental theory in later times. In this essay, the place of the concept of faith in the development theory has been critically discussed.

In the early stages, the theory of development has been introduced by the president Truman in 1949, since then the concept was a topic of continuous debate (Bloch and Richmond 2015). The terms underdeveloped and developing have always been associated with the economic field. In the early stage, development and progress both were interrelated terms and progress was related with the economic growth. Later, several other concepts started getting included with the term development and evolved not only as an economic term but also as the quality of life that cannot be assessed only in terms of economic term. Concepts such as literacy, health care, infant mortality were associated with the concept of development (Heist and Cnaan 2016). Also, the identification of the needs of the needy and who exactly has the right to identify those needs were very much emphasized. Thus a traditional top down approach have started developing and it led to the grass root approach with the much popularized concepts like empowerment and participation. However, the continuous debate with the concept of development had been going on, there was a major lack in the thought of the development. Several researchers have called the term development as a polished variety of colonization and bringing westernization in all the other countries (Stewart and Shamdasani 2014). The initiatives with developmental theory and the developmental interventions have failed numerous times, and that was the primary reason for the debates regarding the developmental theories. As a result of development, there have been times, where in order to sustain true development, the bio centric norm of progression should be more specified and concerned than the human centric norms (Streib, Wollert and Keller 2016). Development should take into account that the sustainability of the earth is much more important, but also it needs to recognize that human is a little part of the huge interest and should acknowledge that even if human has achieved much more sophistication than the other beings, it still will be a small part of the universe.

The significance of faith in development theory

This growing belief with the concept of development, the developmental theory and the interventions took the account of spirituality and faith of the society as the concept of faith plays a significant role in the daily lives of individuals and the community life (Kelcourse 2015). According to some academicians, for most of the people the spirituality is an integral part of their understanding of the community and the development. Therefore it is very much expected that those concepts will find their way to the developmental theory.  Many suggest that there is a strong belief in the human being that no development can be possible without the spiritual advancements and mist people across the world believe in this concept. According to the Director of the Church and Society Program of the Zimbabwe Council of Church, the development is supposed to be related with the values, choice making and confidence and this adherence is quite natural (Matthews 2017). Thus, it can be said, in many literatures and discussions development is presented as a more spiritual and holistic concept in understanding the deepest longing and aspiration of life.

Before getting into the discussion of faith in the developmental theory, it is important to look at the areas of religion and spirituality and its relation with faith. According to researchers, the spirituality acts as the major factor that drives the human beyond the natural beings and it refers to the transcendence (Ager and Ager 2015). An individual transcend the space and time in his imagination; he transcends the earthly limits of the body in speech; and religion and faith makes the individual transcend the humanity. Psychologists state that spirituality takes the individual in a specific context of time frame which is larger than the present one and provides a meaningful connection between the collective and the individual. Spirituality puts the individual in a meaningful place in the universe and unites the individual to that which will succeed him. Therefore the individual spirituality makes the connection with the broader picture or the God, whom no one can transcend.

On the other hand, religion is very much God centric concept that involves the specific official as transmitted by the authorities and it is preserved by the traditional concepts. Therefore, faith is the response of the spirituality and the religious beliefs, although both of the concepts vary in a high degree (Crain 2015). Spirituality is a concept that incorporates the faith; however, faith incorporates the concept of religion. An individual might have faith with religious beliefs but cannot have religion without the faith, although this might happen on a surface level. Few academics say that, if religion can act as the instrument, the spirituality acts as the goal and faith acts as the trust through which the instrument travels to the goal. Faith is a formless concept that can extend beyond the established form of religion. It may include few political philosophies and the religious elements and the traditional beliefs that can blend the factors of mainstream religion with traditional and local practices (DeFilippis and Saegert 2013). Therefore, faith explains a more fluid concept than the religion and it crosses all the academic and other boundaries of the specific person. Consequently it can be said that faith and spirituality are both synonymous words which deal with the personal experience and the connection with the God.

Historical background of the role of faith in developmental theory

As long as the historical background of the role of faith in developmental theory is concerned, both the concepts were not related at their early stage. Mostly in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, the faith based organizations, or the FBOs go together with the colonial state in terms of education and health services in the developing countries, educational sector, hospitals, care homes etc (Casimir, Mathew and Nwankwo 2015). The time of 1945-1980 was the time of state supremacy and FBOs played an ambiguous role in the developmental procedure. In the recent time, faith and religious beliefs have redeveloped their role in the developmental discourse as a much prominent one, although it is quite minor.

There can be found ample number of documents on the significant of incorporating the concept of faith into the development theory and distinguishing it as an element of development if it is succeed. Several post developmentalists suggest that the traditional outlook of development as the economic improvement had contributed to most of the destruction of many structured communities, as it had imposed many cultural values and norms of the development organizations on the communities (DeFilippis and Saegert 2013). However, no such programs can bring positivity and long-term outcomes until the concept is justified in the cultural norms and the values of the society. The spirituality is regarded as the prerequisite for the accomplishment of the developmental theories, as till now the scientific theories and other efficient concepts could not bring an end to the severe problems of the society such as malnutrition, hunger and poverty and human being is still left with inequality, social injustice and creeping depressive thoughts with death (Corey 2015). On the other hand, developmental programs with faith and spirituality encourage the general people in finding the meaning of life in the awareness of their deepest spiritual being which signifies the divine spark for some people. The most interesting concept about the faith in the developmental theory, that it can represent different belief systems and does not give any kind of supremacy to any one of the religions, however, it draws relevance from the common factors of them (Mitchell 2017). As an element of development, faith builds on the deepest sense of identity within the individual empowerment. It can be clearly recognized that the issue of faith and spirituality is being incorporated in developmental theory with the course of time. In a literature produced by World Bank 1998, a dialogue began between the Churches of Africa and the World Bank. This also indicates that the mainstay of modernism, World Bank considered that there is a place of faith in the development theory. Academicians also say that if the faith inspired objects are introduced to the development theory, it becomes authentic and more successful. The objects that are based on faith, if they are introduced to the development theory, it becomes a mutual venture, where issues related to its logical applications become irrelevant (Ware, Ware and Clarke 2016). Thus the development theory has evolved to the response of individual beliefs and faith. The believers in the concept state that, development theory is a joint venture of love and faith which is concerned with the assurance that how long it will stay. Not only in the under developed countries, faith has also played an important role in the developed countries like UK, where faith has made a huge difference in the homeless services. The services in Manchester and London were severely influenced by the faith based organization.

Conclusion

However, there are several arguments that the concepts of religion and faith can work as an obstruction to development. If it is historically concerned, the concept of development was first brought by the missionaries with the idea of improving the native countries they visited. The carnage that was committed with their specific goals of the visitation, spreading religion, have left several bitter implications with the concepts of missionary because most of the people have reacted against it. Not only this, development was secularized for a lot of other reasons too (Casimir, Mathew and Nwankwo 2015).

There are three primary reasons that can show that religion and faith can be an obstruction to development theory. The first of them is that religion is a disruptive concept; secondly the religious politics can be much complex, thirdly religion can be risky while few religious beliefs work towards the basically diverse agenda that are driven by diverse tradition (Corey 2015). Spirituality and faith both deal with dark and sacred things that give an individual a specific identity and an interpretation of the world. Another reason that can enhance the idea of faith as an obstruction to development, that due to the work of the different faith institutions that are provoked by the wish to have more converts. As a result to that developmental sectors have been more associated with the similar faith groups.

Conclusion

In the previous sections, it can be seen that faith and spirituality have occupied a dichotomous position as an element of faith on one hand, and on the other hand it can work as an obstacle to the development theory. While faith may act as a highly compatible component of faith and can work as a motivating factor, it may also be a contradictory element to the specific aims of development and can be used to create divisiveness and inequality. In order to overcome this dichotomy, the early stage of development needs to be considered and it is necessary to find out what exactly the term adheres to. Many academicians have stated that history does not deal with the whole universe; rather it distinguishes it in different sectors. In that way, science and humanities can be treated as two independent spheres. If a discourse that is interdependent of all creations can be initiated, perhaps faith would not be used as something that can be used either negatively or positively, rather it can be treated as something that is a link between the scientific and the human experience.

Reference List

Ager, A. and Ager, J., 2015. The Place of Faith in Humanitarian Engagement with Displaced Communities. In Faith, Secularism, and Humanitarian Engagement: Finding the Place of Religion in the Support of Displaced Communities (pp. 31-54). Palgrave Macmillan US.

Andrade, A., 2014. Using Fowler’s Faith Development Theory in Student Affairs Practice. College Student Affairs Leadership, 1(2), p.2.

Bloch, D.P. and Richmond, L., 2015. Connections between spirit and work in career development: New approaches and practical perspectives. Routledge.

Casimir, A., Mathew, C. and Nwankwo, A., 2015. Partnership between the State and the Church: Contextualizing Nigerian Faith-Based Vehicles as Poverty Reduction Tools in the Millenium. Open Journal of Political Science, 5(02), p.58.

Corey, G., 2015. Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy. Nelson Education.

Crain, W., 2015. Theories of development: Concepts and applications. Psychology Press.

DeFilippis, J. and Saegert, S., 2013. The community development reader. Routledge.

Heist, D. and Cnaan, R.A., 2016. Faith-based international development work: a review. Religions, 7(3), p.19.

Kelcourse, F.B., 2015. Human development and faith: Life-cycle stages of body, mind, and soul. Chalice Press.

Matthews, S., 2017. Colonised minds? Post-development theory and the desirability of development in Africa.

Mitchell, B., 2017. Faith Based Development: How Christian Organizations Can Make a Difference. Orbis Books.

Nicholas, S., 2014. Peacebuilding for faith-based development organisations: informing theory and practice. Development in Practice, 24(2), pp.245-257.

Stewart, D.W. and Shamdasani, P.N., 2014. Focus groups: Theory and practice (Vol. 20). Sage publications.

Streib, H., Wollert, M. and Keller, B., 2016. The Faith Development Interview: Methodological Considerations. In Semantics and Psychology of Spirituality (pp. 239-249). Springer International Publishing.

Ware, V.A., Ware, A. and Clarke, M., 2016. Domains of faith impact: how “faith” is perceived to shape faith-based international development organisations. Development in Practice, 26(3), pp.321-333.