Development

Current definitions of development have several dimensions:

• what it is..
• who does it..
• and how it is done...

Volumes have been written on the topic—the following basic descriptions will suffice for the purposes of this paper:

Ideally, development is a process in which people become more active agents in improving their circumstances. It incorporates a number of subsidiary themes such as sustainability, capacity building, equity and partnership.

Sustainability usually refers to the ability of people to carry on with a development initiative after external inputs are no longer available.

Capacity-building is the increase in people's ability to improve their circumstances.

Equity refers to the distribution of an initiative's participation and benefits—usually focused on the
equality of women and men, it also addresses inter-group relationships.

Partnership describes an authentic sharing and reciprocity among all participants in a development
initiative—it moves the process beyond traditional donor-recipient relationships to one in
which all parties have something to offer and to gain from each other.

Development initiatives have a broad scope: they can range from small-scale educational activities that foster self-esteem and problem solving in individuals all the way to strengthening an area's manufacturing or agricultural resources, establishing or strengthening a country's university system, improving a government's institutional capacity, or the construction of large works such as hydro dams or transportation systems that can transform whole regions.

Spirituality

kelda: http://www.tamas.com/samples/source-docs/spirit_devt.pdf

An adequate definition of spirituality calls for examination of three related words: _spirituality_, _spiritual_ and _spirit_, and an associated term, "soul". Although definitions abound in the scriptures of various Faiths and among other groups, a western secular reference is used here. The following are from Webster's New International Dictionary, 2nd Edition (1957):

Spirituality is defined as follows:

1. Quality or state of being spiritual; spiritual nature or function; spiritual-mindedness.

Spiritual is defined as follows:

1. Of, pertaining to, or consisting of, spirit; not material; incorporeal, as, a spiritual
substance or being.
2. Of or pertaining to the intellectual and higher endowments of the mind; mental;
intellectual; also, highly refined in thought or feeling.
3. Of or pertaining to the moral feelings or states of the soul, as distinguished from the
external actions; reaching and affecting the spirit.
4. Of or pertaining to the soul or its affections as influenced by the divine Spirit; controlled
and inspired by the Spirit; proceeding from the Holy Spirit pure; holy; divine; heavenlyminded;
— opposed to carnal.

Spirit is defined as follows:

1. The breath of life; life, or the life principle, conceived as a kind of breath or vapour
animating the body, or, in man, mediating between body and soul…
2. The life principle viewed as the 'breath' or gift of deity; hence, the agent of vital and
conscious functions in man; the soul.

Soul is defined as follows:

1. An entity conceived as the essence, substance, animating principle, or actuating cause of
life, or of the individual life, esp. of life manifested in psychical activities; the vehicle of
individual existence, separate in nature from the body and usually held to separable in
existence. … Soul, spirit are often convertible terms…