R eligion , P ublic H ealth and C hurch for the 2I st C entury

In the midst of enormous challenges threatening the public health systems in sub‐Saharan Africa, faith‐based organizations (FBOs) are making a substantial contribution to the health of communities. This paper offers a brief retrospective into the development of such collaboration, and how scientific “religion blindness” made it all but invisible. In this context, the African Religious Health Assets Programme (ARHAP) was initiated to research and understand “religious health assets” (RHAs), to probe how such assets can be drawn into public health systems, and to develop appropriate language for this field. First, we explain the turn to “assets” in contrast to the more common discourse of “needs” or “deficits”, and show the importance of both tangible and intangible RHAs for a proper understanding of their significance. Second, we are interested in how religion might strengthen the “leading causes of life”, rather than focusing in the first instance on illness and the burden of disease. We suggest that the potency of an FBO for health will depend on the extent to which these leading causes of life are present. A third innovation arose once we contemplated that fact that many African languages have no direct equivalents for either ‘religion’ or ‘health’, but use comprehensive concepts like bophelo, that encapsulate both religion and health in terms of holistic, relational well‐being. To express this, we have coined the term “healthworlds”, which describes the way in which religion and health are intertwined with each other, and impact on the choices people make about their health. The paper emphasized the connection between (ill‐) health, power and justice as essential areas of concern for people of faith. It clodes by stressing the need for collaboration, not only between the religious and public health sectors, but also among those who are seeking to understand this area.