Concepts of development in the Christian traditions: a religions and development background paper

Abstract

This paper aims to give an overview of thinking on development and related issues in the major Christian traditions. The paper is divided into five sections: Roman Catholic social teaching; liberal Protestantism and social Christianity; the Ecumenical movement and liberation theology; Conservative-Evangelical and Fundamentalist movements, and Pentecostal and independent indigenous churches. The paper concludes by summarising Christian attitudes to the key concepts of the Religions and Development project and Christian approaches to the key issues.