![]() This is the case, at least in part, because the relationship between religion and poverty is often mediated by social structural, political, and cultural factors implicated in the very class-based relationships that religious groups seek to change in order to lift themselves, or those they seek to help, out of poverty. Those of us interested in these issues know that answers to such questions are by no means simple. Questions about the ways in which religion may help to alleviate poverty are of concern to a broad interdisciplinary audience that includes theologians, religious studies scholars, and scholars of human development, as well as a wide range of social scientists. Taking a global view in case selection, this article shows that although differences in these processes do exist based on global location, there are many similarities that cross national and religious lines. The range of the empirical cases considered here not only suggests the power of religion to address poverty, but also and importantly, the ways in which religion can be co-opted in sustaining the status quo for poor and politically subjugated groups. This article discusses the dialectical relationship between religion and social structures to consider when and how religion has the capacity to alleviate poverty and where it might figure in inequality’s endurance or exacerbation. ![]() ![]() The social scientific literature shows that religion is shaped by social structures-including economic and political structures-and also that, as an integral element of many cultures, it can shape those same structures in turn. From Marx’s famous dictum that religion is “the opium of the people” to Weber’s recognition of the dignity reaped by the “religiously musical,” disagreement about both the prosocial and deleterious-even violent-effects of religious beliefs and practices has been a long discussion in social theory. ![]()
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