Each entry describes a tradition on its own terms, using the sources listed there, then asks what its practices suggest about symptoms and sources. The depth reading is Charitology’s interpretation, open to correction by people who practice the tradition.
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Search across titles, descriptions, practices, interpretive lenses and source names. Filter by the tradition covered or editorial review, then select entries for a reading dossier that keeps their different terms and contexts visible.
Coverage and review
This is a bounded introduction to the sources represented here, not complete coverage of a religion, culture or every school within it. The depth lens is Charitology’s interpretation, open to correction from people who practice the tradition.
These entries describe particular sources and practices, not every person or school within a tradition. The source lens is Charitology’s interpretation. It should be questioned and improved with people who practice the tradition; traditions are not ranked.
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Christian almsgiving and tithing
Christianity inherited the tithe, a tenth of one’s produce, from the Hebrew Bible and made giving to the poor a central act of faith. Practice varies widely between churches, and Catholic teaching adds that what the poor are owed in justice comes before charity.
- Tradition covered
- Christianity
- Origin described
- The tithe laws of the Hebrew Bible and the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels, developed in church law and teaching over two thousand years
Inspect the recorded fields
- Practice described
- Giving alms to people in need, ideally without seeking credit, and in some churches giving a tenth of one’s income to the church
- Interpretive lens
- The works of mercy, such as feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless, are relief given as a duty, not as an extra. Catholic teaching also holds that justice must be satisfied before charity, which looks past relief to what keeps people poor.
Read the source list (8)
- Deuteronomy, chapter 14 (New American Bible, Revised Edition) — United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Matthew, chapter 6 (New American Bible, Revised Edition) — United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Matthew, chapter 25 (New American Bible, Revised Edition) — United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2 (New American Bible, Revised Edition) — United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 2443–2449, Love for the Poor — Holy See
- Tithes — William Fanning, The Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent), 1912
- Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching — United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
- Tithing — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2023
Dāna in Buddhist, Hindu and Jain traditions
Giving, dāna in Sanskrit and Pali, is honored in three religions that grew up in ancient India, each with its own emphasis. Buddhism treats giving as the first step in letting go of greed, the Bhagavad Gita ranks gifts by the giver’s motive, and Jain laypeople support the monks and nuns who have given up nearly all possessions.
- Tradition covered
- Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism
- Origin described
- Ancient India, in the teachings of the Buddha, Hindu scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita, and the vows of Jain laypeople
Inspect the recorded fields
- Practice described
- Gifts of food, money and support to monks, nuns, temples and people in need, judged as much by the giver’s intention as by the gift
- Interpretive lens
- The sources here emphasize intention, attachment and spiritual development alongside material support. The Buddhist sources describe the gift of the Dhamma, the Buddha’s teaching, as the highest gift. These are accounts of giving within the traditions, not a single test of effectiveness shared by all three.
Read the source list (5)
- Dana: The Practice of Giving — Bhikkhu Bodhi (ed.), Buddhist Publication Society, Wheel Publication 367/369, via Access to Insight, 1990
- Bhagavad Gita, chapter 17, verse 20 — Swami Mukundananda, Bhagavad Gita, The Song of God
- Bhagavad Gita, chapter 17, verses 21 and 22 — Swami Mukundananda, Bhagavad Gita, The Song of God
- Jainism — Paul Dundas and the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2026
- Ritual practices and religious institutions in Jainism — G. Ralph Strohl and the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2026
Dasvandh and seva
Sikhs are taught to live by honest work and to share what they earn. Dasvandh, giving a tenth of one’s income to the community’s common fund, and seva, selfless service such as working in the gurdwara’s community kitchen, are two of the main ways they do it.
- Tradition covered
- Sikhism
- Origin described
- The teaching of Guru Nanak, recorded in the Guru Granth Sahib, and the institutions built by the Gurus who followed him
Inspect the recorded fields
- Practice described
- Giving one-tenth of one’s earnings to the community’s common pool, and serving others in person, especially in the langar, the gurdwara’s community kitchen
- Interpretive lens
- Sikh teaching sends material gifts into a common fund rather than from one person to another, because personal charity can demean the receiver and inflate the giver. Pooled giving sustains shared institutions, from kitchens to welfare projects, so the tradition builds structures of mutual support, not only acts of relief.
Read the source list (3)
Mutual aid societies
Long before modern charities and welfare states, people pooled small, regular contributions so that whoever fell sick, lost a family member or hit hard times could draw on the group. Burial societies, friendly and fraternal societies and savings circles carry the same idea, that the helpers and the helped are the same people.
- Tradition covered
- Mutual aid, across many cultures
- Origin described
- Burial societies of ancient Greek and Roman artisans, medieval guilds, the friendly societies of 17th- to 19th-century Britain, and community savings and burial groups such as South Africa’s stokvels
Inspect the recorded fields
- Practice described
- Members pay into a common fund that pays out in turn, or when a member faces illness, death or hardship
- Interpretive lens
- Mutual aid turns relief into a standing arrangement, ready before the crisis and run by the people it protects. Where it grows into rules and institutions, as friendly societies did when they became insurers and unions, it works at the level of structure.
Read the source list (4)
- Friendly society — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Preamble of the Free African Society, 1787 — Africans in America, PBS
- About Stokvels — National Stokvel Association of South Africa
- History — National Stokvel Association of South Africa
The Gospel of Wealth
In 1889 the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie argued that the rich are trustees of their fortunes and should give them away, wisely, while they live. His essay helped shape modern philanthropy, from the public library to the giant foundation, and so did the questions critics have asked about it ever since.
- Tradition covered
- Modern Western philanthropy
- Origin described
- Andrew Carnegie’s two articles in the North American Review in 1889, and the foundations he and other industrialists created
Inspect the recorded fields
- Practice described
- The very rich giving away most of their fortunes during their lifetimes, to institutions that help people improve their own lives rather than to relief or to heirs
- Interpretive lens
- Carnegie dismissed most almsgiving and wanted fortunes spent on lasting institutions, such as libraries and parks, that help people rise, a clear preference for structure over relief. His critics add that the most structural question of all is who gets to decide.
Read the source list (5)
- The Gospel of Wealth — Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Corporation of New York (2017 edition of the 1889 articles), 1889
- History — Andrew Carnegie Foundation (formerly Carnegie Corporation of New York)
- The Strike at Homestead Mill — American Experience, PBS
- Just Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better — Rob Reich, Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, 2018
- About the Giving Pledge — The Giving Pledge
Tzedakah and Maimonides’ ladder
In Jewish tradition, giving is an obligation of justice, and the 12th-century scholar Maimonides ranked eight levels of it. The highest helps a person no longer need charity at all.
- Tradition covered
- Judaism
- Origin described
- The Hebrew Bible and rabbinic law, set out systematically by Maimonides in the 12th century
Inspect the recorded fields
- Practice described
- Regular giving to the poor as a duty of justice, ranked by how much dignity and independence it preserves
- Interpretive lens
- Maimonides’ highest level emphasizes helping someone become self-sufficient. Charitology reads this as a connection to preventing future need and preserving agency, not as proof that the wider causes of poverty have ended.
Read the source list (2)
- Mishneh Torah, Laws of Gifts to the Poor 10:7 — Sefaria
- Maimonides’ Eight Levels: A Contemporary Reading — My Jewish Learning
Ubuntu
Ubuntu is a Southern African idea of shared humanity, often summed up as “a person is a person through other persons.” It is an ethic of community and solidarity rather than a doctrine of charity, and it has shaped South African law and the country’s approach to reconciliation.
- Tradition covered
- Southern African moral thought
- Origin described
- The ways of life of Southern African peoples before colonial rule, expressed in sayings such as umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, and taken up in modern South African law and philosophy
Inspect the recorded fields
- Practice described
- Living in community with others, identifying with them and acting in solidarity, which includes helping one another; invoked in South Africa’s transition to democracy and by its Constitutional Court
- Interpretive lens
- Ubuntu has no ladder of gifts. Because it places a person’s humanity in their relationships, its concern is less with what one gives than with whether community and dignity are sustained, and South Africa invoked it to help rebuild a divided society.
Read the source list (3)
- Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 200 of 1993 (repealed), National Unity and Reconciliation — South African Government, 1993
- S v Makwanyane and Another (CCT3/94) [1995] ZACC 3 — Constitutional Court of South Africa, via SAFLII, 1995
- Ubuntu as a moral theory and human rights in South Africa — Thaddeus Metz, African Human Rights Law Journal 11(2), 2011
Zakat and sadaqah
In Islam, zakat is a required yearly payment on wealth above a set threshold, owed to eight groups the Qur’an names. Sadaqah is voluntary giving of any kind, and its lasting form, sadaqah jariyah, keeps benefiting people long after the gift is made.
- Tradition covered
- Islam
- Origin described
- The Qur’an, which names zakat’s recipients in verse 9:60, and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad
Inspect the recorded fields
- Practice described
- A yearly obligation of 2.5 percent of qualifying wealth, a gift of food at the end of Ramadan, and voluntary gifts of money, time or kindness, including lasting gifts such as wells, schools and endowments
- Interpretive lens
- Zakat is a recurring duty that moves wealth to people in need every year, and its recipients include debtors and people held in bondage, whose freedom it helps buy. Ongoing charity and endowments reward gifts that keep producing good, so the tradition values lasting institutions as well as relief.
Read the source list (8)
- Surah At-Tawbah 9:60 — Quran.com
- What is Zakat — National Zakat Foundation, 2021
- Zakat and your family — National Zakat Foundation, 2023
- What is Zakat and how to pay it — Islamic Relief Worldwide
- Sadaqah — Islamic Relief Worldwide
- Sadaqah jariyah — Islamic Relief Worldwide
- Sahih Muslim 1631, The Book of Wills — Sunnah.com
- Waqf (endowment) — Islamic Relief Worldwide