ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a vital, if elusive, dimension of that challenge: the role of faith. It suggests a wonderful blend of positive and negative, inspiration and recipes for disappointment. All are embodied or suggested by the one-syllable word: faith. Religious faith can galvanize compassion and action for good, through charitable works, empathy, and an appeal to the better angels of humanity, even as it can, if manipulated, do great harm. The experience of the World Bank, an unlikely pioneer in exploring faith dimensions of development work, offers an example both of the substantial benefits that can come with opening new windows and of the large sensitivities that stand in the way. When the historian and founder of the lay Catholic movement the Community of Sant'Egidio, Andrea Riccardi, looks to the inspiration of religious faith, he looks not only to ancient wisdom but also to faith in modern miracles.
