This detailed book is a resource for students, practitioners, and leaders interested in how the major world religions have understood poverty and responded to the poor.

Poverty is a universal phenomenon across history, regardless of country or culture. Today, the demographics of the poor are on the rise globally: it is a critical issue. Religious traditions are another universal aspect of human societies, and nearly all religions include directives on how to respond to the poor and systemic poverty. How do the various religious traditions conceptualize poverty, and what do they view as the proper response to the poor?

Poverty and the Poor in the World’s Religious Traditions: Religious Responses to the Problem of Poverty brings together specialists on the religions of the world and their diverse viewpoints to identify how different religious traditions interact with poverty and being poor. It also contains excerpts of religious texts that readers can use as primary documents to illustrate themes such as identifying the poor, religious reasons for being poor, and responses (like charity and development) to the existence of poverty. This book serves as a powerful resource for students of subjects like international development, missiology, comparative religion, theology, social ethics, economics, and organizational leadership as well as for any socially concerned clergy of various faiths.

Addresses a topic of great importance: the intersection of religion, a universal cultural phenomenon; and the poor, a population whose demographics are on the rise globally

Fills the need for an accurate, authoritative resource on the way poverty and the poor are understood in the world’s religions

Coedited by a published specialist in world religions and a recognized specialist, academic, and practitioner in international responses to poverty and emergency response in a variety of cultures