Churches, Mission and Development in the Post-colonial Era

How is it that the Catholic and Protestant churches, which had already demanded sustainable development in the countries of the South in the 1960s, today predominantly support the technocratic development plans of the governments there? This special volume explores this apparent paradox through theological, historical and ethnographic studies. They provide insights into the theological foundations of church development policy and show how on its basis the resolutions of the Second Vatican Council and the World Council of Churches at the end of the 1960s demanded alternatives to modernist, neo-colonial development. Several contributions on Indonesia highlight the tensions between the development policy convictions of individual church actors and the closely state-controlled churches. Against this background it becomes clear to what extent the secular commitment of the churches is marked by real political constraints.

Table of contents

7-21
Churches, Mission, and Development. An Introduction 
     Heinzpeter Znoj and Sabine Zurschmitten

23-39
The Roots of Christian Motivated Development Work. A Theological Perspective
     Claudia Hoffmann

41-65
Notions of mission. Re-examining Protestant Missionaries’ Understandings of the Content and Purpose of Their Work in Today’s World and Their Reaching for Utopia
     Maria Hughes

67-87
„Nachhaltige Entwicklung“ als Innovation? Diskurs der Missionsgesellschaft Bethlehem in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren
     Barbara Miller

89-110
Versuche einer alternativen Entwicklungspolitik in den 1970er Jahren. Wege der Kooperation in der ökumenischen Bewegung 
     Noëmi Rui

111-134
Regulating Succession: The Challenge to secure the Future of longterm Catholic Development Cooperation in Western Flores, Eastern Indonesia
     Sabine Zurschmitten

135-161
Catholicism, Development Ideology, and the Politics of (De)colonization in West Papua
     Cypri Jehan Paju Dale