This edited collection provides an in-depth ethnographic study of faith-based development organizations in the United States, shining a much needed critical light onto these organizations and their role in the United States by exploring the varied ways that faith-based organizations attempt to mend the fissures and mitigate the effects of neoliberal capitalism, poverty, and the social service sector on the poor and powerless. In doing so, Not by Faith Alone generates provocative and sophisticated analyses-grounded in empirical case studies-of such topics as the meaning of "faith-based" development, evaluations of faith-based versus secular approaches, the influence of faith-orientation on program formulation and delivery, and examinations of faith-based organizations' impacts on structural inequality and poverty alleviation. Taken together, the chapters in this volume demonstrate the vital importance of ethnography for understanding the particular role of faith-based agencies in development. The contributors argue for an understanding of faith-based development that moves beyond either dismissing or uncritically supporting faith-based initiatives. Instead, contributors demonstrate the importance of grounded analysis of the specific discourses, practices, and beliefs that imbue faith-based development with such power and reveal both the promise and the limitations of this particular vehicle of service delivery.
Chapter 1: Social Services, Social Justice, and Faith-Based Organizations: An Introduction Chapter 2: A Theology of Presence: Faith Partnerships with U.S. Public Schools Chapter 3: On the Border: Faith-Based Initiatives and Pentecostal Praxis in Brownsville, Texas Chapter 4: Faith-Based Development and Community Renaissance: Tradition and Transformation in South Memphis Chapter 5: Bricks without Straw: Faith-Based Responses to Homelessness in the Hostile City Chapter 6: Muslims, Medicine, and Mercy: Tales of Two Clinics in Southern California Chapter 7: Culture, History, and Discourse at Tree of Life: A Faith-Based Relief Agency in Mission, South Dakota Chapter 8: What's Islam Got to Do with It? American Pluralism, Ethnographic Sensibilities, and Faith-Based Refugee Resettlement in Hartford, Connecticut Chapter 9: Translating Religious Traditions into Service: Lessons from the Faith and Organizations Project Chapter 10: Religious Organizational Identity and Environmental Demands Chapter 11: Bio-pistis and the Conversion of a Heroin Addict: God, Prison, and Biomedicine Chapter 12: Straight from the Devil: Contours of "the Public" in American Public Health
