ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores constructions of religion and development through discursive practices. It explains how both religion and development are contested terms in the political, cultural and religious context of Bolivia. The book describes how the Bolivian institutions through their discourses of diakonia and integral development construct relations between theological understandings and mainstream visions of development. It also explores the different theological discourses which frame the understandings of development. The book shows that international networks to a large degree are able to define the official discourse in both Iglesia Evangelica Luterana de Bolivia and Mision Alianza de Noruega en Bolivia, while the language used in contact with the communities brings to light the use of ‘alternative’ discourses. It provides suggestions for a research agenda approaching relationships between religion and development as constructed through negotiations.