Religion and Volunteering

The central aim and contribution of this volume is to examine the relationship between religion and volunteering in its fuller complexity and depth. It starts from the somewhat contradictory observation that, while the relationship between religion and volunteering has been extensively researched, it has been done so in a relatively standardized and monotonous way leading to an extensive body of research yet a one-sided accumulation of knowledge. This volume introduces the reader to a much wider landscape of perspectives hence offer a richer, more complex and variable understanding of religion and volunteering, as well as the relationship between both phenomena. In this book, the authors claim that the current dominant approach, although legitimate and necessary to analyze the interactions between religion and volunteering, nonetheless falls short in grasping the full complexity of both phenomena. Therefore, this volume demonstrates that the relation between religion and volunteering is not univocal but differentiated, ambiguous and sometimes provocative. Additionally, it opens the field up to other perspectives on religious actors and on how religion and volunteering are enacted outside Western liberal and Christian societies. It emphasizes interdisciplinary perspectives, including theology, sociology, political science, anthropology and even architecture.