ABSTRACT
Religious settings enable durable engagements, as they function as foci for repeated interactions. We ask how religious practice is used as a resource to become capable, in the sense of Sen (2005), in a position of marginalization. Urban scholars like Mike Davis (2006) have expressed concern over religious practices of the urban marginalized and see them as new signs of a ‘culture of poverty’ – poor people are more likely to embrace ideologies that lead to fundamentalism, as they are living in anomic conditions without law and order for ‘orientation’ (Davis 2006 quoted in Bayat 2007, 580). This diagnosis is in particular applied to highly politicized religious movements (cf. Mousseau 2011; Davis 2006; Bayat 2007). This chapter challenges this position. It discusses the use of religious beliefs and membership of a religious congregation to confront everyday challenges in the city.
