Keeping Faith in Faith-Based Organizations

The world's poorest people are struggling to access quality, affordable health care. Change is urgently required. Faith-based organizations deliver more than 40 percent of health services in many of the poorest places. This book argues FBOs can–and must–deliver quality health services without sacrificing their faith in the process. Dean Pallant asks an awkward question: «If its faith does not drive an FBO, whose faith does?» Pallant visited Salvation Army health ministries in more than forty countries in four years, and this book records his global reflections structured around a practical theological model of enquiry. His goal is to identify a faithful future for hundreds of Salvation Army hospitals and clinics and thousands of congregation-based health ministries. Pallant finds answers in the work of Karl Polanyi, John Wesley, Stanley Hauerwas, William Booth, and Luke Bretherton, among others. Pallant challenges the bio-medical definition of health and proposes a comprehensive appreciation of people as «healthy persons»–the people God created us to be. Pallant's proposals are bold and far-reaching for the Salvation Army and other FBOs. They are insightful and challenging for everyone–of whatever faith–committed to improve the health of the poorest people.