Catholic Missionaries and Their Work with the Poor: Mitigating Market-Government Failure in Emerging Nations

by Albino Barrera

Overview

This book explores the vital role of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in compensating for the market’s and government’s inability to provide vital services. Its key theoretical contribution is the notion that poverty is the result of a triadic failure—when markets, government, and civil society become dysfunctional at the same time. Using data on Catholic missionaries’ development work, this study presents the various ways by which FBOs mitigate market and government failures in healthcare, education, and social services, and in the process build and strengthen civil society.

This study has two main objectives. First, it aims to present an overview of missionaries’ development work, evaluating the socioeconomic significance of their faith-based development work. In addition, various comparative advantages and disadvantages have been imputed to FBOs in the religion-development literature, and we assess to what extent missionaries actually exhibit these posited qualities in practice. Second, the groundwork is laid for future religion-development scholars by presenting a theoretical framework and a method for evaluating the role and contributions of FBOs in the larger community.

This is an important investigation of contemporary worldwide Christianity and its relationship with development. As such, it will interest scholars of religious studies and missiology, as well as development economics, public service and the political economy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367029180
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/11/2018
Series:	Studies in World Christianity and Interreligious Relations
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Albino Barrera is Professor of Economics and Theology at Providence College, USA. His research mainly focusses on moral theology, economic ethics, and the intersection of development economics and religion, and he has published multiple books and journal articles on these subjects. These include, Biblical Economic Ethics (2013) and Market Complicity and Christian Ethics (2011).

Table of Contents

Prolegomena 1 Missionary Healthcare Services and their Outreach to the Ultra-Poor 2 Missionary Educational Initiatives for Children and Youth at-Risk 3 Missionary Social Services and their Positive Externalities for Development 4 Missionaries’ "Last-Mile" Comparative Advantages 5 Summary and Evaluation

Editorial Reviews

"This is an important study on the role of Catholic religious organizations in development, where until now there has been a lack of systematic research. […] Surely all programs for cross-cultural missioners […] could make use of this pioneering study. More generally, this volume should make the reading lists of courses in socio-economic development at institutes of higher education." – John Mansford Prior, Mission Studies

"Well constructed and clearly written, this study opens up new dimensions of documentation and analysis which, within recognized limits, could be extended to the action of other churches as well as non-Christian religious organizations. (Bien construite et clairement rédigée, cette étude ouvre de nouvelles dimensions de documentation et d'analyse qui, dans les limites reconnues, pourraient être étendues à l’action d'autres Églises ainsi que d'organisations religieuses non chrétiennes)" - J. Scheuer, Nouvelle Revue Théologique

From the Publisher