(Re)Thinking the Role of Religion in Social and Humanitarian Action:
Preaching in a Transnational Approach
Middle East (19th-21rst Centuries)
Research on welfare and humanitarianism in the Middle East has experienced a renewed interest over the past two decades (Watenpaugh, 2015; Ruiz De Elvira, 2019; Naïli, Napolitano, Piraud-Fournet, 2022). They are notably marked by a growing interest in the role of faith-based actors in assisting refugee populations or those considered vulnerable (Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, 2011). Long focused on international actors and the transnational dimensions of aid — Christian missions (Sanchez Summerer & Okkenhaug, 2020), Protestant organizations such as the Near East Relief (Rodogno, 2022; Bourmaud, 2020), or transnational Islamic associations (Bellion-Jourdan, 2002; Benthall, 2016) —, recent studies increasingly turn their attention to the role of local actors. Works on the Red Crescent (Moeller, 2016), Islamic NGOs (Challand, 2008), church-related organizations (Rioli, 2020; Neveu, 2023), and charitable associations (Turiano, 2021; Fallas, 2023) seek to move beyond the Eurocentric approaches that long dominated the history of humanitarianism, showing instead how these structures often constitute the first networks of solidarity and relief on the ground.
This burgeoning historiography highlights the crucial role played by religious institutions and faith-based actors in humanitarian and social action in the Middle East (Paulmann & Moeller, 2023) — whether churches (Chatelard, 2011; Bava, 2018; Neveu, 2022; Levant, 2022), Muslim clerics, faith-based NGOs, or charitable associations (Pierret, 2011; Ruiz de Elvira, 2019). Numerous studies have examined the close links between preaching, charity, and humanitarian action (Bellion-Jourdan, 2002), notably through the analysis of certain Christian organizations for which social engagement constitutes a privileged vehicle for the dissemination of religious discourse. In this regard, Fatiha Kaouès refers, in the case of Protestant organizations in Lebanon, to a form of “social and humanitarian evangelization” (Kaouès, 2011).
However, despite the richness of this body of work, few studies adopt a diachronic approach that would make it possible to analyse these dynamics over the long term and to grasp their reconfigurations. Research often remains segmented by confession or denomination, overlooking dynamics of contact, mimicry, and even competition between religious traditions. Moreover, the material and performative dimension of preaching remains largely underexplored, even though the material turn in the study of religion provides relevant tools for examining it.
By adopting a broad definition of preaching — understood as a device aimed at “(re)making people believe,” embodied in the presence of an individual or a group within a given territory in order to form or strengthen a community of believers — this workshop seeks to explore the links between preaching and socio-humanitarian action in the contemporary Middle East. From a Weberian perspective, preaching develops in a context of religious crisis, which distinguishes it from the mere care of souls. Consequently, contexts of social and humanitarian crises appear as privileged sites for understanding this constitutive device of faith experiences, beyond the sole framework of the sermon or religious discourse. The chosen approach is deliberately cross-cutting: it brings Islam, Judaism, and Christianity into dialogue, while situating the Middle East within a global perspective. Indeed, many of the actors and institutions involved maintain close ties with European, American (Granick, 2021), or other international partners and funders. These non–Middle Eastern actors will therefore also be taken into account.
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