Hustinx, Lesley, Von Essen, Johan, Haers, Jacques, Mels, Sara (eds.): Religion and Volunteering: Complex, Contested and
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Hustinx, Lesley, Von Essen, Johan, Haers, Jacques, Mels, Sara (eds.): Religion and Volunteering: Complex, Contested and Ambiguous Relationships Springer, New York, 2015 Martti Muukkonen1
International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University 2017
Starting with a quote from the editors’ introductory chapter: ‘‘Existing research indicates two major mechanisms for explaining a positive relationship between religion and volunteering: religious beliefs and religious practice. Religious belief teaches the values of altruism and caring for others, which may easily find expression in acts of volunteering. The second strand of research suggests that religious practice, e.g. attendance of religious services, has been found to be of crucial importance. In the latter case, rather than religious conviction, religious networks play a determining role (p. 1f)’’. After this introduction, the hopes of the reader on this anthology are high. However, the further one reads, the stronger the feeling gets, like in many scientific conferences: you should be happy if you find two or three top papers. The rest of the papers are good but… This is a common problem in conference—or in this case workshop—publications. It could have been avoided by a more thorough editing process and using the swarm intelligence of third sector scholars in finding authors to fill in the gaps. The book is divided into four parts: I. Theologies of religion and volunteering; II. Religion as a determinant of volunteering; III. Religion and volunteering in a (post-) secular context; and IV. Politics of religion and volunteering. Part I discusses the theological basis of volunteering and has one article on each of the following three religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The first one, by Jacques Haers and Johan von Essen, focuses on the calling of man and on free will in Lutheranism and in Catholic Jesuit theology. It is the only purely theological article in the anthology. Here, the reader asks the first structural question: why these Book Review Editor: Marc Jegers. & Martti Muukkonen [email protected] 1
Nurmija¨rvi, Finland
123
Voluntas
two examples of Christianity? Why not a word on Reformed theology—especially because, according to the old Salomon and Anheiers’ Global Civil Society, voluntarism is much more common in reformed countries than in Lutheran and Catholic contexts. The authors argue that Christian philanthropy is not so much about volunteering as about following the commandment of Jesus to love your neighbour. Thus, it is more of a duty than voluntarism. The theme which this article lacks is the relationship between individual action and the welfare state. Not a word is said about the way Lutheranism has influenced the building of the Nordic welfare state, and what it means to voluntarism. In the same way, no mention is made of the teaching of the Catholic Church on poverty, and, especially, of how the (originally Jesuit) subsidiarity principle has influenced political solutions. The other two articles
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