From Marx’s famous dictum that religion is “the opium of the people” to Weber’s recognition of the dignity reaped by the “religiously musical,” disagreement about both the prosocial and deleterious—even violent—effects of religious beliefs and practices has been a long discussion in social theory.

The social scientific literature shows that religion is shape d by social structures—including economic and political structures—and also that, as an integral element of many cultures, it can shape those same structures in turn.

This article discusses the dialectical relationship between religion and social structures to consider when and how religion has the capacity to alleviate poverty and where it might figure in inequality’s endurance or exacerbation.

The range of the empirical cases considered here not only suggests the power of

religion to address poverty, but also and importantly, the ways in which religion can be

co-opted in sustaining the status quo for poor and politically subjugated groups.

Taking a global view in case selection, this article shows that although differences in

these processes do exist based on global location, there are many similarities that cross national and religious lines.

Questions about the ways in which religion may help to alleviate poverty are of concern

to a broad interdisciplinary audience that includes theologians,