The International Director of the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF), Dr. Dennis P. Petri delivered a guest lecture on “Religious Organizations and their Impact on Local Development.”
The guest lecture was delivered on February 16, 2023 at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam as part of the Master Module ‘Promotion of Local Developments.’ It’s the third year this guest lecture is offered in this program.
In the guest lecture, Dr. Petri discussed the implications of the human security paradigm and the fall of secularization theory for our understanding of the development needs of religious minorities as well as the potential contributions of religious groups to development. He illustrated this with the presentation of four Latin American examples, and offered some thought on how local development can not only be sensitive but also improved through the participation of religious groups.