Religious traditions are often a hindrance to healthy socio-economic development—which can be defined as promoting both individual and collective human flourishing—what the Jewish tradition calls shalom. Religion can often be overly individualistic, otherworldly, and fatalistic. It can also give rise to silly superstitions, fanaticisms; it can feed chauvinism, xenophobia and racism, hateful attitudes and actions—all of which impede community and economic development.

But the role of religious tradition and experience has a strongly positive side as well, both individually and institutionally. It can be a great source of individual strength in the face of social injustices as illustrated by this letter from India.

In your joint family, I am known as the second daughter-in-law. All these years I have known myself as no more than that. Today, after fifteen years, as I stand alone by the sea, I know that I have another identity, which is my relationship with the universe and its creator. That gives me the courage to write this letter as myself, not as the second daughter-in-law of your family...I am not one to die easily. That is what I want to say in this letter. Rabindranath Tagore, "Letter from a Wife." (1914)

But not only can religious traditions help one deal with and find personal strength in the midst of adversity. They can help lessen the amount of adversity itself. History has taken great leaps forward largely through individuals with committed beliefs in transcendent ideals such as William Wilberforce, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mohandis Ghandi’s for example. Through the power of their beliefs and the force of their personalities, they pushed humankind to new levels of ethical understanding and commitment such as the eradication of slavery and the extension civil and human rights—things that we now largely take for granted.

Religious tradition can also be a source of institutional strength for democracy as well by developing social values. Nobel Prize Economist Amartya Sen commented that values are like oxygen. We don’t pay attention to them until they are absent. Importantly, Sen noted the linkage between what he called “valuational and institutional” degradation; that where social values such as respect and reciprocity (values that sustain interpersonal trust) are weak, critical public institutions will predictably be weak and ineffective as well and beauracratically bloated. Thus, if religious traditions can be harnessed to promote pro-democratic social values, this can be important for proper performance of the key institutions upon which a functioning economy rests. The president of the World Bank, James Wolfhenson reflects this cluster of understandings when he writes "that the WB’s central mission is to meld economic assistance with spiritual, ethical, and moral development." (World Bank, 1996:1)

Religious tradition can also offer a strong civil society voice in the face of encroaching government and business. Concerning religion’s role as a civil society actor, Senior World Bank Policy advisor Deepa Narayan offers the following challenge,

The church can use its moral authority and ethical standards to influence changes in attitudes about how we should tackle the problems of poverty and injustice, gender inequity, and corruption. In order to do this, the churches must become agents of transformation, using their influence to demand better governance and public accountability.

Romanian Orthodoxy as a Culturally Relevant Resource for Development Though severely compromised by Communism, the Orthodox Church, offers promising leverage points for (inter)personal development. Romania’s self-identity is decidedly Orthodox, polls consistently revealing upwards of 85% of the population as Orthodox, and the Church is the most trusted institution in all of society. Orthodoxy is taught in the school systems (often in dry and ineffective ways). Social and moral values are largely understood and framed within the world-view of Orthodoxy.

Romania produced what is universally regarded as the 20th century’s greatest Orthodox theologian, Dumitru Staniloae. Much of his greatness (and the promise of Orthodoxy in general for development) is linked to the distinctive value placed upon improved social relations—what is often called “sobornost” or community. Spiritual growth is growth in social empathy and competence, growth in community, growth in social capital development. Staniloae articulates a theology that is “concerned with the aspirations and the problems of mankind as a whole, a theology which is concerned to provide ever deeper foundations for human cooperation and for the service of all mankind.” (Theology and the Church, 223)

New Horizons organization does not advocate a blind or dogmatic following of any tradition or point of view. We are however exploring the role that traditions can be leveraged for democratic participation skills and development. And as Staniloae argues we must “take into account the spiritual effects which they [various teachings and practices] produce in the lives of men”, and this can only objectively be done through empirical analysis achieved through statistics. Religion itself cannot be analyzed, but its effects in lives can be. Renowned psychologist Gordon Allport affirms in the Individual and His Religion that the criteria of a mature religious sentiment are “a widened range of interests, insight into oneself, and the development of an adequately embracing philosophy of life.” We would add social criteria as well: do these elements of traditions develop interpersonal trust, social inclusion (or what we call “Samaritan capital”), and a sense of personal change agency? This is not only good sociology (a functional approach to religion), it is good theology. A tree is judged by its fruits, its contribution to shalom or wholeness and integrity in the world, and theological visions should not be exempt from this critical scrutiny.

Religion is the realm of ultimacy. It arouses strong passions and can easily be abused...but it can be, and historically has been, a source of motivation for good. In a place like Romania where the majority of people are religious, it can be a tremendous cultural resource that, judiciously employed, can be harnessed in the journey toward sustainable development. Karl Jung wrote at the end of his career "Human beings have a built-in religious need." If this is the case (and it clearly is for many) why not do our best to leverage traditions in ways that build community, social capital and promote sustainable economic development? It is part of our strategy to help youth critically appropriate the resources in their own traditions that promote democratic competencies and (inter)personal development.


Patriarch Approval

The study of Pr. Prof. Univ. Dr. Nicoale Achimescu about IMPACT

Journal of Youth and Theology article on Staniloae and Development

YouTube video with Father Cristi Milos