Visions of Charity: Volunteer Workers and Moral Community. . - Book Notes - book review

Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, Dec, 2001

Rebecca Anne Allahyari, Visions of Charity: Volunteer Workers and Moral Community. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000. $45.00 hardcover, $17.95 papercover.

With the recent announcement of President George W. Bush's faith based initiative in social policy, interest in the role of religious organizations in meeting social needs has intensified. Of course, religious organizations have long been involved in providing services to people in need. In additional to the efforts of local churches, synagogues and temples, large scale operations managed by the major denominations are now well established. Catholic Charities, the Jewish Federations and the Salvation Army are just a few of these bodies. Unfortunately, their work has not been adequately researched. Although information about their mission, programs and expenses are available, much more research into their their role in social welfare is needed.

Rebecca Allahyari's book makes an important contribution to understanding how faith based organizations function. Her book is concerned with the role of volunteers in two sectarian agencies catering to homeless people in Sacramento, California. One of these, Loaves and Fishes, is a Catholic organization which makes extensive use of volunteers in its daily feeding program. The other, the Salvation Army, also uses volunteers but most of its services are provided by staff who are former clients and by court ordered volunteers challenged by substance and related problems. Allahyari spent a good deal of time in both organizations as a volunteer herself gathering important ethnographic information on the activities of these organizations. More importantly, her analysis of their different approaches to the problem of homelessness provides helpful insights into the potential of faith based organizations to address social needs. Her account of the way the volunteers defined their role and formulated a moral image of themselves makes for fascinating reading.

Allahyari found that the two organizations differ substantively in the way they approach the problem of homelessness. Loaves and Fishes promoted a `personalist hospitality' approach that gave expression to ideals of compassion and altruism within a loosely structured framework of service provision. On the other hand, the Salvation Army's program was much more structured and focused on rehabilitation through discipline, moral regeneration and work. Of course, these two approaches do not only characterize religious charity, but are a microcosm of dominant philosophies in social welfare in general.

Allahyari's account is wide ranging and while it focuses on the moral experience of being a volunteer, it also touches on issues of gender, race and community within the context of social service provision. A short final chapter relates the study to the wider issues attending the faith based approach. These include the question of the separation of religion and state, the politics of faith based provision and questions of funding. The book contains much that will be of relevance as the debate about the proper role of the religious community in social welfare evolves.