Philip Fountain

Victoria University of Wellington · School of Social and Cultural Studies

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, there has been a prodigious production of typological studies seeking to “map” religious NGOs. In this paper, our intention is not to construct yet another new map of religious NGOs, or even to map these earlier mappings. Rather we would like to open up here some new conversations about the ways in which...

In a remarkable about-turn, development studies has discovered religion and considerable attention is now dedicated to analysing religious nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). How can we understand the concept of ‘religion’ that is now being so widely discussed? Through a close reading of key texts, this chapter examines how religion has been cons...

This ethnography examines the disaster relief work of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Aceh, Indonesia, following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. MCC’s work is informed by the theologies and historical experiences of the North American Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. An intentional focus of MCC’s work was a substantive interfaith encounter b...

Development scholarship in the social sciences has an awkward relationship with development things, often ignoring or sidelining materiality for analysis of cultures, discourses and power dynamics. Yet things are pivotal for how development works. This paper brings the anthropology of development into conversation with the burgeoning field of the a...

The question of the location of religion in the public sphere is always a matter of the logics, practices, and politics of secularism. While mythologies of a linear secular teleology have been thoroughly critiqued, the ongoing trajectories for both religious and secular politics are contested and emergent. New Zealand provides an important contex...

A popular view of contemporary New Zealand politics is that it is devoid of ‘religious’ dynamics, but the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic showed that religious ideals, cosmological paradigms, doctrinal discourses, and ritual practices continue to shape political processes. This article analyses themes of transcendence and the sacred...

The centennial anniversary of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is an occasion for festive celebration. Founded in 1920 in Elkhart, Indiana, MCC evolved into a large and complex relief, development, and peacebuilding organization. Over its one hundred years, MCC has left a profound mark on North American Mennonites, including decisively shaping...

This innovative and timely reassessment of political theology opens new lines of critical investigation into the intersections of religion and politics. Political Theologies and Development in Asia pioneers the theo-political analysis of Asian politics and in so doing moves beyond a focus on the (Post-)Christian West that has to date dominated scho...

The political theology of development in Asia makes a vital contribution to our understanding of configurations and genealogies of the political. Recent scholarship on political theology has amply illustrated the critical potentialities of examining the theological remainder in even the most secular of modern institutions. However, scholarship on p...

The 2020 coronavirus pandemic has caused disruption on a global scale, impacting on many facets of life. Religions are invariably implicated in such times of crisis in diverse ways. But how should we think about what is taking place religiously at the present time? This short article considers the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of 'crisis...

An introduction to a special issue in the Journal of Mennonite Studies on Anthropology and Mennonites co-edited by Royden Loewen and Philip Fountain.

Although a significant literature has arisen examining the intersections of Christianity and development in the Pacific, these themes have yet to receive the full attention they deserve. This special issue seeks to encourage further scholarship on these important themes. In this introduction we trace some of the entanglements between religion and d...

Religion has been profoundly reconfigured in the age of development. Over the past half century, we can trace broad transformations in the understandings and experiences of religion across traditions in communities in many parts of the world. In this paper, we delineate some of the specific ways in which ‘religion’ and ‘development’ interact and mu...

One area of tension between the disciplines of anthropology and theology is the question of normativity—an invocation to be otherwise. Some imagine a sharp bifurcation between the disciplines, with anthropologists concerned with thick description of human life-worlds whereas theologians practice a normative endeavour in their attempt to propel thei...

The Mission of Development interrogates the complex relationships between Christian mission and international development in Asia from the 19th century to the new millennium. Through historically and ethnographically grounded case studies, contributors examine how missionaries have adapted to and shaped the age of development and processes of ‘tech...

This chapter presents an ethnography of Christian theology. It does so by examining theological articulation in and through the creedal form. Creeds may be taken as an archetypal monologic mode of expression due to their monovocal presentation of standardized, non-debatable claims. Through close attention to how and why creeds are created it is pos...

The neglected intersection between religion and disaster relief should be given much greater attention. This emerging field is an intellectually compelling area for study, though much work stills needs to be done to explore the processes that take place on the ground in different settings. It is also important for practitioners and policy makers in...

This volume, and the discussions out of which it developed, has aimed to expand upon and redirect work on the intersections of religion and development through examinations — on both conceptual and ethnographic levels — of the changing configurations of these categories within and across particular political contexts. In the late 1990s, a number of...

Eschewing tired doctrines of strict demarcation between development, religion and politics, this volume takes up the task of critically analysing this triple nexus. The chapters brought together in this landmark collection draw on detailed empirical studies from around contemporary Asia. Through their engagements with Islam, Christianity, Buddhism,...

The discipline of anthropology is dominated by a secular analytical approach which requires the bounding of religion and its exclusion from anthropological ways-of-knowing. This is premised on a historical understanding of the discipline as scientific, rational, objective and modern. While these norms are now routinely critiqued, theology remains p...

In a ground-breaking article Joel Robbins analysed what he characterises as the ‘awkward’ relationship between anthropology and theology and invited greater anthropological engagement with its disciplinary cousin. This Special Issue responds to this provocation by using Robbins' argument as a bouncing board for wide-ranging forays into a common set...

Katherine Marshall’s thorough and thoughtful critique of my chapter raises a number of important objections. However, it appears that among her most important criticisms is that I didn’t write a different chapter. To clarify, my chapter was not a general survey of the literature on ‘religion and development’ (which has already been admirably carrie...

In a remarkable about-turn, development studies has discovered religion and considerable attention is now dedicated to analysing religious non-governmental organisations (NGOs). how can we understand the concept of ‘religion’ that is now being so widely discussed? Through a close reading of key texts, this chapter examines how religion has been con...

Dans ses commentaires pertinents et réfléchis de mon article, Katherine Marshall soulève un certain nombre d’objections importantes. Sa principale critique à mon égard semble néanmoins porter sur le fait que je n’ai pas écrit un article différent. Afin de clarifier les choses, mon intention n’était nullement de présenter une revue d’ensemble des tr...

Après une incroyable volte-face, les spécialistes du développement ont enfin redécouvert le rôle de la religion et s’attachent désormais à étudier sérieusement les ONG religieuses. Mais quelle est cette « religion » dont il est tant question ? En s’appuyant sur une lecture attentive de quelques textes de référence, cet article explore la manière do...

بعد تغيير مفاجئ وعجيب في الموقف، يكتشف المتخصصون في التنمية مجددا و أخيرا، دور الدين وينهمكون بجدية منذ الآن في دراسة المنظمات اللاحكومية (ONG) الدينية. لكن ما هو هذا "الدين" الذي يدور الحديث بصدده إلى هذا الحد ؟ بالارتكاز الى قراءة متأنية لبعض النصوص المرجعية، يتحرى هذا المقال عن الأسلوب الذي بْنِي على أساسه الدين وما هي الغايات من ذلك. في الوقت ا...

Katherine Marshall’s thorough and thoughtful critique of my chapter raises a number of important objections. However, it appears that among her most important criticisms is that I didn’t write a different chapter. To clarify, my chapter was not a general survey of the literature on ‘religion and development’ (which has already been admirably carrie...

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1757-6547.2012.00186.x/full

This thesis examines the work of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Indonesia. In describing the inner workings of MCC it draws on a diverse range of historical and contemporary sources as well twenty-two months of ethnographic field research. The argument focuses on two themes. First, it explores the ways in which the practices of MCC are in...

THE WOUNDS OF this world – ecological and humanitarian – require a re-thinking of our educational systems. Building upon a shalom model of education, the authors argue that questions of space and location are critically important to Christian pedagogies. Our education praxis must move beyond the classroom to engage students empathetically in the wo...

This paper considers the links between religion and disaster relief through a detailed case study of the activities of Christian churches following the Aitape tsunami of 1998 in northwest Papua New Guinea. Based on primary fieldwork data, we argue that Christian religion was central to the way in which the Combined Churches Organization conducted i...

Thesis (M.Sc.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2002. Includes bibliography.