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Introduction This book began as an outgrowth of doctoral research conducted by Rupen Das under the direction of William Brackney at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. The parts of the doctoral thesis were later published as Compassion and the Mission of God: Revealing the Invisible Kingdom (2016). Dr. Das has spent years in international development and disaster relief and has had countless opportunities to assess poverty up close. He has been an agent of relief efforts, crossing geographic and religious boundaries. Dr. Brackney has studied human rights and ethical issues related to poverty and published on the topic: Human Rights and the World’s Major Religions (5 vols., 2005 rev. 2013). In his travels, he too has observed poverty firsthand. Clinton Bennett, an international scholar of world religions, suggested the topic as filling a necessary niche in scholarship and reference tools, espe- cially in the area of poverty and social justice. All the major religious traditions examined in this work have perceptions of poverty and the poor as a phenomenon of human history and experience. Some account for poverty as a socioeconomic given, while others seek to alleviate or eliminate poverty. The plight of the poor elicits different identifi- cations and responses in each of the religious traditions. Inevitably, in their articulation and responses to poverty and the poor, religious traditions advance notions about deity, humanity, justice, equity, distribution of resources, and the exercise of political power. As a category of inquiry, religion offers an ancient and contemporary window on poverty. From texts, commentaries, and nonliterary sources, religious orientations have suggested a morality of poverty that has created obligations and rela- tionships for their adherents. Chapter 1 identifies the theories, paradigms, and strategies that commun- ity development professionals use when addressing poverty. The various human rights conventions and instruments provide a secular philosophical framework that helps them interpret the reality and dynamics of poverty.