ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. This book aims to answer the broader question of what occurs when religious actors enter and engage in the public sphere, in particular when the public sphere is a humanitarian and development field shaped by wider processes such as globalisation, migration and foreign policy, and whose actors themselves must contend with these forces. It contends that religious actors have to undertake humanitarian work negotiating a normative global secular liberalism that also pervades the humanitarian and development industry. The book provides an ethnographic approach which privileged the collection of data during a year-long research phase with a particular organisation and an analysis of its structures and everyday practices. It explores the importance of recognising local faith communities' contribution to humanitarian efforts and the need for a better understanding of the challenges they face as faith-based actors.
