A study of global giving. “The provocative information challenges the assumptions that philanthropy is a primarily Western or Christian tradition.” —Choice

This book is an investigation of how cultures outside the Western tradition understand philanthropy and how people in these cultures attempt to realize “the good” through giving and serving. These essays study philanthropy in Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Jewish, and Native American religious traditions and in cultures from Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

Contributors include Steven Feierman, John A. Grim, Leona Anderson, Ananda W. P. Guruge, G. D. Bond, Leslie S. Kawamura, Said Amir Arjomand, Joanna F. Handlin Smith, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Derek J. Penslar, Amanda Porterfield, Miroslav Ružica, Mark Juergensmeyer, Darrin M. McMahon, Gregory C. Kozlowski, Adele Lindenmeyr, Vivienne Shue, Andrés A. Thompson, Leilah Landim.

“The cross-cultural understandings this book provides can do much to help us determine the distinctive shape and form American religious philanthropy might take in the future.” —Christian Century