Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Thinking about religious welfare and rethinking social policy
- Part I Religion, social welfare and social policy in the UK
- Part II Sector-specific religious welfare provision in the current UK context
- Conclusion: Theoretical and practical implications for social policy
- References
- Index
four - Social work and social action
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Thinking about religious welfare and rethinking social policy
- Part I Religion, social welfare and social policy in the UK
- Part II Sector-specific religious welfare provision in the current UK context
- Conclusion: Theoretical and practical implications for social policy
- References
- Index
Summary
Summary
• Social work has religious roots dating back to the 19th century but has shed them in favour of social scientific methods that have resulted in religion becoming a taboo subject.
• Social work research in the UK has made great strides in the last decade in raising awareness among social work teachers and students of the significance of religion and how to assess it in the lives of clients. Social policy research could learn valuable lessons from this.
• Social work and social action are deeply connected and this is evident among religious organisations that see themselves as offering more than just a service to their clients, and are part of more fundamental processes that enhance and empower their local communities.
• Religious welfare organisations need to be conceptualised as offering both a social welfare service and services. The former refers to a spiritual act of selfless help for the common good, deeply rooted in theological teachings about the purpose of human life; the second is a functional exercise of transferring that help in a material way through resources and activities in order to solve social problems and satisfy apparent needs.
Introduction
We start our review of the contribution of religion and religious organisations to social welfare by looking first at the social work profession. It is also apt to begin with social work because the empirical research which this book draws on will help illustrate fundamental characteristics about the nature of religious welfare provision and social action which will help illuminate the concept of ways of being proposed in this book.
Together with education, social work is a central plank of religious welfare activity. In the British academic literature, it is the subject of social work that has surpassed its cousin, social policy, in engaging with the implications of religion and spirituality for human wellbeing. In part, this may be explained by the physical proximity of social work to people's lives and the increased need to pay attention to minority ethnic populations, some of who are among the poorest and least well-integrated populations in the UK. The previous chapter has already outlined that there are high levels of deprivation among the Muslim population, so it is not a surprise that one of the more recent social work publications in the UK is in relation to Islam (see Ashencaen-Crabtree et al, 2008).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Religion and Faith-Based WelfareFrom Wellbeing to Ways of Being, pp. 129 - 148Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2012