Religion and development: Tracing the trajectories of an evolving sub-discipline

Religion and development (RaD) has emerged as a new academic sub-discipline since the turn of the 21st century, following decades of secular assumptions and attitudes dominating development studies, and international development more broadly. In 2019, there was a little doubt that religion has been incorporated into development studies and it is therefore timely to re-appraise RaD. Recent scholarship suggests that RaD increasingly informs, engages with and influences development studies and development practice-providing rich empirical material, broader disciplinary engagement and deeper analytical insight. Drawing on a survey of almost-mainly English language-700 publications, this article traces the emergence and establishment of RaD. The article traces the emergence of the field (2000-10) and then its subsequent more critical engagement with development studies (between 2011 and 2018). The article concludes by identifying five emerging contemporary research themes within RaD and future research opportunities.