How is it that the Catholic and Protestant churches, which had already demanded sustainable development in the countries of the South in the 1960s, today predominantly support the technocratic development plans of the governments there? This special volume explores this apparent paradox through theological, historical and ethnographic studies. They provide insights into the theological foundations of church development policy and show how on its basis the resolutions of the Second Vatican Council and the World Council of Churches at the end of the 1960s demanded alternatives to modernist, neo-colonial development. Several contributions on Indonesia highlight the tensions between the development policy convictions of individual church actors and the closely state-controlled churches. Against this background it becomes clear to what extent the secular commitment of the churches is marked by real political constraints.

With contributions by
Heinzpeter Znoj, Sabine Zurschmitten, Cyprianus Jehan Paju Dale, Claudia Hoffmann, Noëmi Rui, Barbara Miller, Maria Hughes