Where next for faith in the public sphere?
Where next for faith in the public sphere? was the title of a conference I was asked to speak at on 1st July. My session was titled ‘Faith, community and the active citizen’. Planning for the session, I thought about three strands that twist loosely together to shape faith in the public sphere, firstly, the values and motivations arising from faith itself, secondly, the ideas that shape social action, and thirdly, public policy.
Where have we come from and what has shaped where we are now?
Thinking of the value and motivations of faith, the imperative to act well in the world, to care for and serve others is present in all religious faiths, as was amply demonstrated in the social action area organised by FbRN for the launch of Inter Faith Week last year. Practice and thinking about relationships in society is an area in which people of faith have been very active, including the work of Paulo Freire, Community Organising, Community Development and Communitarianism. The interface with government is based on its needs in order to govern and deliver services. Under the recent Labour administration, this was marked by a shift from the language of instrumentalism (a view of faith communities as repositories of resources that can be used to deliver government policy) towards a language about active citizens and partnerships.
What changes will influence developments over the next few years?
The faiths newer to the UK have had time to develop their bonding social capital, and are swiftly developing their social action activities and social enterprises. The main new ideas are the Big Society and associated with it an increased prominence for Community Organising. There are also radical ideas about new forms of social investment in communities. However, the economic crisis looms large. The concentration of the Coalition Government on reducing the budget deficit has important ramifications for religion in the public sphere. There seems little doubt that the poorest in society will suffer the most. In the last economic downturn religious groups had two main responses, care and assistance for those in poverty, and a vigorous public advocacy on behalf of the poorest. In the current situation both responses will be needed again.
Big Society and faith
Big Society seems to be about co-production of a new form of civil society, but the details are still being worked out. We therefore have a unique opportunity to participate in forming the future. The FbRN national conference on 19th October will be working on this – do come and join us.
For the full text of my presentation see attachment below
For a full report of the conference and other speakers including Adam Dinham, Bikhu Parekh, Grace Davey, Haleh Afshar, John Devine, Linda Woodhead and Richard Farnell go to
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| where next for religion in the public sphere.doc | 42 KB |
Dr Doreen Finneron's blogs
| Where next for faith in the public sphere? | Thu 5th Aug |
| Community Organising for the Big Society | Mon 14th Jun |
| Can we co-create the Big Society? | Mon 7th Jun |
