Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare

Download or read book Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare written by Miguel Glatzer and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume seeks to understand the role and function of religious-based organizations in strengthening associational life through the provision of social services, thereby legitimizing a new role for faith in the formerly secular public sphere. Specifically, we explore how a church in a postcommunist setting, during periods of economic growth and recession in the wake of transitions to capitalism, and with varied numbers of adherents, might contribute to welfare services in a new political regime with freedom of religion. Put another way, what new pressures would be placed on the secular welfare state if religious organizations (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, others) simply stopped offering their services? By examining public perceptions of the church, changing dynamics of religiosity, and church-state-civil society relations, the volume places these issues in context.