This detailed book is a resource for students, practitioners, and leaders interested in how the major world religions have understood poverty and responded to the poor. Poverty is a universal phenomenon across history, regardless of country or culture. Today, the demographics of the poor are on the rise globally: it is a critical issue. Religious traditions are another universal aspect of human societies, and nearly all religions include directives on how to respond to the poor and systemic poverty. How do the various religious traditions conceptualize poverty, and what do they view as the proper response to the poor? Poverty and the Poor in the World's Religious Traditions: Religious Responses to the Problem of Poverty brings together specialists on the religions of the world and their diverse viewpoints to identify how different religious traditions interact with poverty and being poor. It also contains excerpts of religious texts that readers can use as primary documents to illustrate themes such as identifying the poor, religious reasons for being poor, and responses (like charity and development) to the existence of poverty. This book serves as a powerful resource for students of subjects like international development, missiology, comparative religion, theology, social ethics, economics, and organizational leadership as well as for any socially concerned clergy of various faiths.

ABOUT THE BOOK
"Real Change is Incremental" is a broad-ranging collection of essays by a writer with broad-ranging interests, including magic, philosophy, poetry, comedy, and international development. An exploration of change and ideas through a series of reflections on knowledge, experience, and how we see the world, the book urges intellectual humility, being open to the ideas of others, and meeting the challenge of taking practical action together to change the world moment-by-moment, day-by-day, and generation-by-generation. "Real Change Is Incremental" is an eloquent plea for all of us citizens of the world to admit what we do not know and sincerely search for truth in what other people may not know that they know.
EDITORIAL REVIEWS
Keep thinking, and keep writing . . . you have a deft and enlightened pen.
--RICH MOCCIA, University of Guelph
Riveting, inspirational, and entertaining. You re a born storyteller.
--NINA SPENCER, author of "Getting Passion Out of Your Profession"
David writes like a broken-hearted calculator.
--JAY SANKEY, magician, creator, author
Here s hoping that more people will be infected by Peck s passion, drive, and purpose of changing the world for the better.
--GRACE ATTARD, blogger, speaker, coach, facilitator
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Peck is a Canadian magician, academic, and writer who is active in the academic, entertainment, and international development sectors. Peck is the Founder of SoChange, a regular contributor to Rabble.ca, and a lecturer at Humber College in Hamilton, Ontario. He received his master s degree in philosophy from the University of Guelph in 2004. Peck currently manages SoChange, a social enterprise that works alongside members of the non-governmental community in areas such as fundraising, advocacy, and donor relations. In addition to working to raise the capacity of such organizations as Make Poverty History and Asian Outreach, SoChange has spearheaded such events as Why Everything Must Change, which brought together prominent social justice advocates in a conference setting, and the Mosquitoes Suck Tour, which collaborates with UNICEF and aligns with the Canadian initiative Spread the Net managed by Plan Canada to raise funds and awareness for malaria alleviation efforts in Africa.