The Impact of Religion on Social Cohesion, Social Capital Formation and Social Development in Different Cultural Contexts

What is the glue of society? Which forms of sociality help to overcome social needs and poverty? The role of religion and religious institutions is often expected to be relevant with regard to questions like these. But until today, these issues were seldom raised from a theological perspective. This volume wants to open the discourses on social cohesion, social capital formation and social development for the theological debate, presenting theoretical reflections and empirical research by scholars from different religion-related disciplines from the Netherlands, South Africa and Germany.

Wilhelm Gräb is professor of Practical Theology and director of the Institute of Sociology of Religion at the Faculty of Theology of Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany, as well as extraordinary professor at the Faculty of Theology of Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Lars Charbonnier is researcher at the Department of Practical Theology at the Faculty of Theology of Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany.