The Christian Contribution to the Changes of the Development Aid System: The Lutheran Approach

Abstract

Unlike the previous decades, the global development aid system is more willing to admit a significant role of faith-based organisations in promoting development thinking and in the distribution of development aid. The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) approach significantly contributes to this new thinking, especially as the theological background, global structures, and long-year experience in diaconal work enable the LWF's experts to make credible and feasible utterances in the field of development aid. The article outlines the meaning and global structure of the development aid and contrasts it with the Lutheran, Christian approach to development. It stresses the significance of the theological background of such terms as sustainability and sustainable development and specific assets ascribed to faith-based organisations. The text synthesizes information and observations from relevant literature on development and selected documents of the LWF.