Al albab borneo journal iain Pontianak, 2015

This paper would like to map the religious response in a post-disaster community. In an academic discourse, a post-disaster community is one with abnormal conditions, including how it defines aspects of Divinity in their religious perspective. Thus, the complexity of issues that encompass a disaster hit community will shape the worldview, perspective, and the understanding of the relationship between human, God, nature, and religion, serves as the basic assumption of this research. So, there are several points that will be introduced in this paper including: first, the disaster typology from the perspective of the experts; second, the debate between the divine law and the law of nature in the context of disaster; and third, the religious response of the disaster-hit community over the history of the events of disaster. The research shows some important findings including the emergence of various forms of response about the events of disaster and their relation to human, God, nature, and religion itself. Since the concepts of disaster appear from a post-disaster society, on one side also require relationship which is able not only to respond to disasters but also to provide constructive solutions to the survival of the post-disaster community. Therefore, the stronger the religious normative doctrine of a person, the more difficult to bring closer to the context his survival not to mention life improvement. Nevertheless, in the majority of other communities that culturally experienced two sides of mass dilemma i.e. the theological concept of submission, patience and gratitude in the religious worldview of post-disaster community as the disaster not only happened to a person but also to many people.

International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters (Special issue "Religious Actors in Disaster Relief"), 2015

This paper explores how everyday religious narratives in post-disaster contexts can be interpreted as key sites of agency articulated in resistance to dominant discourses of disaster relief. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among affected communities after the 2010 floods in Pakistan, we argue that religious discourses code everyday actions with political meaning and significance. Deploying Scott’s (1990) theorization of hidden transcripts and everyday acts of resistance, as well as Mahmood’s (2005) more recent framing of agency as a capacity for action, we argue that local communities are dynamic political actors capable of transformative interventions even in the wake of major disasters and the relief efforts that ensue in their wake. By exploring how religious narratives are mobilized by local communities we seek to better understand how the post-disaster arena is used to rework concepts of ‘beneficiaries’, ‘relief provision,’ and ‘religion.’

Special issue of the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters (IJMED), 2015

The neglected intersection between religion and disaster relief should be given much greater attention. This emerging field is an intellectually compelling area for study, though much work stills needs to be done to explore the processes that take place on the ground in different settings. It is also important for practitioners and policy makers involved in disaster response to have a nuanced understanding of the work that religious actors undertake. This special issue begins with an interview with representatives of prominent humanitarian organizations, all of whom call for greater attention to the work of religious actors in disaster relief. The following case studies provide a textured empirical analysis of religious responses to disasters in contemporary Asia. By attending to particular contexts it is shown that religious actors can and do play important yet complex roles in relief processes. This special issue – edited by Philip Fountain, Robin Bush, and R. Michael Feener – aims to critically examine these diverse intersections and also help set future research agendas on the subject.

2015

This special issue seeks to provide greater attention to the neglected intersection between religion and disaster relief as an intellectually compelling field of study and as a domain deserving consideration among practitioners and policy makers. This special issue begins with an interview with representatives of prominent humanitarian organizations, all of whom call for greater attention to the work of religious actors in disaster relief. The following case studies provide a textured empirical analysis of religious responses to disasters in contemporary Asia. By attending to particular contexts it is shown that religious actors can and do play important yet complex roles in relief processes.

Asian Ethnology, 2016

Salvage and Salvation Guest Editors' Introduction W hat does it mean to offer salvation in the midst of disaster? This is the question that animates the articles in this special issue, all of which probe the complex dynamics at play in the intersections of religion and disaster relief in contemporary Asia. Here, we seek to advance inquiry into the conceptual categories of "religion," "disaster," "relief," and "Asia" by drawing on recent theoretical advances across a variety of disciplines. The recent history of Asia is replete with frequent, massive, and high profile "natural" disasters as well as innumerable smaller-scale events that nevertheless devastate local communities. Though the casualties, economic losses, and graphic images of material damage caused by Asian disasters often receive primetime-albeit shortlived-attention in the global media, disaster impacts are far more wide-ranging than such reporting tends to reveal. Disasters affect all aspects of social life in ways that continue long after a precipitating event, and they frequently operate as decisive points at which new spaces are opened for political, social, and religious change. 1 The cultural dynamism of disasters also emerges from the social processes that arise in response to it, including efforts to "salvage" damaged assets and through actions aimed at delivering "salvation"-a process that is simultaneously material and social. Additionally, in the wake of major disasters in contemporary Asia, relief and reconstruction activities, as well as various forms of gifting and charity, frequently inspire complex global entanglements across spatial and cultural gaps. We argue that religious mobilizations in the wake of Asian disasters provide compelling opportunities to scrutinize pivotal theoretical concerns within the contemporary social sciences. This special issue is particularly concerned with what analysis of the religion-disaster-relief nexus can do for our understanding of the first of these three key terms: religion. Among the increasingly diverse set of actors that engage in disaster relief today are an array of organizations, movements, congregations,

2015

The neglected intersection between religion and disaster relief should be given much greater attention. This emerging field is an intellectually compelling area for study, though much work stills needs to be done to explore the processes that take place on the ground in different settings. It is also important for practitioners and policy makers involved in disaster response to have a nuanced understanding of the work that religious actors undertake. This special issue begins with an interview with representatives of prominent humanitarian organizations, all of whom call for greater attention to the work of religious actors in disaster relief. The following case studies provide a textured empirical analysis of religious responses to disasters in contemporary Asia. By attending to particular contexts it is shown that religious actors can and do play important yet complex roles in relief processes. This special issue – edited by Philip Fountain, Robin Bush, and R. Michael Feener – aims to critically examine these diverse intersections and also help set future research agendas on the subject.

Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 2019

Spirituality in the Context of Disaster," demonstrates the heterogeneity and complexities of religion as a variable of psychological resilience in response to disaster. Research from hurricane, flood, and mass shooting disasters are reported. So too is the development of a new measure of disaster response. The section ends with a review of 51 empirical resilience studies of religion/spirituality and disaster. There are both ethnic and age differences in how salient a factor religion is after disasters. These papers demonstrate that to engage this complexity will require the expertise and effort-as with all cultural competence-to understand the "made meaning" of the lived experience of religion across one's life span. Religion is shown to be a robust objective for public health policy. Clinical Impact Statement This special section examines resiliency responses across a variety of disasters. The roles of religion were complex. Outcomes do not depend only on if people "have religion," they also depend on how people have religion. There were age, ethnicity and theological differences in how people approached religion in the aftermath of disaster. Also, over time, there was evidence of reduced salience of religion. Given the complexity of religion as a variable, and that people seek solace from religion early in a disaster, it is therefore best that religious professionals and mental health professionals develop collaborative continuities of care.

Journal of Refugee Studies, 2015

This paper argues that functional secularism frames the discourse of contemporary humanitarianism. While in principal 'neutral' to religion, in practice this framing serves to marginalize religious language, practice and experience in both the global and local conceptualization of humanitarian action. Illustrated with examples from a range of humanitarian contexts, it is argued that the resulting discourse fosters a humanitarian response that is ill-equipped to engage with dynamics of faith within displaced populations. Humanitarianism needs to acknowledge the advent of post-secularism signalled by many social theorists, and engage with greater awareness of the role of faith-both liberal materialist and religiousin addressing a range of issues of core relevance to the field: the clarification of core humanitarian values, the retention of a human rights framework able to define and protect human dignity, and appropriate means of addressing religious experience and well-being in the course of humanitarian programming.

Contemporary Pacific, 2004

This paper considers the links between religion and disaster relief through a detailed case study of the activities of Christian churches following the Aitape tsunami of 1998 in northwest Papua New Guinea. Based on primary fieldwork data, we argue that Christian religion was central to the way in which the Combined Churches Organization conducted its relief work and to why it sought to undertake it in the first place. A comparison of the perspectives of this organization and of other religious and governmental organizations as to the causes of this disaster and what remedies they should undertake suggests that greater attention should be paid—both by aid and development researchers and practitioners—to aspects of religious belief and the way they inform theory and practice. Much remains to explore concerning the ways religion informs the theory and practice of aid and development, particularly in the Pacific. Through the detailed case study offered here, this paper adds to the fledgling debate engaging with the links between religion and development and calls for the initiation of an agenda toward that end.

2010

In less than a minute on January 12, 2010, Port-au-Prince and its surrounding area were devastated by an earthquake so lethal it was pronounced the worst natural disaster in the history of the Americas. Entire neighborhoods were destroyed, more than two hundred thousand people died, and tens of thousands would flee to the provinces. As is common in a crisis, people turned to religion for meaning, answers and guidance, as well as for the material support brought by charity.