The Geography of Religion : Faith, Place, and Space

The only book of its kind, this balanced and accessibly written text explores the geographical study of religion. Roger W. Stump presents a clear and meticulous examination of the intersection of religious belief and practice with the concepts of place and space. He begins by analyzing the factors that have shaped the spatial distributions of religious groups, including the seminal events that have fostered the organization of religions in diverse hearths and the subsequent processes of migration and conversion that have spread religious beliefs. The author then assesses how major religions have diversified as they have become established in disparate places, producing a variety of religious systems from a common tradition. Stump explores the efforts of religious groups to control secular space at various scales, relating their own uses of particular spaces and the meanings they attribute to space beyond the boundaries of their own communities. Examining sacred space as a diverse but recurring theme in religious belief, the book considers its role in religious forms of spatial behavior and as a source of conflict within and between religious groups. Refreshingly jargon-free and impartial, this text provides a broad, comparative view of religion as a focus of geographical inquiry. Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication Page 6 Table of Contents 8 List of Illustrations 12 Preface 16 1. Introduction 20 The Upper West Side Eruv 20 Religion as a Cultural System 26 The Mutability of Religions 29 The Multiformity of Religions 31 Faith, Place, and Space 35 Religious Distributions 38 Context and Faith 40 Secular Space 43 Sacred Space 44 Notes 47 2. The Spatial Dynamics of Religious Distributions 52 Religious Hearths 54 The Indic Region 58 Vedism 59 Jainism 61 Buddhism 62 Hinduism 64 Sikhism 68 The Semitic Region 68 Proto-Judaism 69 Judaism 72 Christianity 75 Islam 78 Processes of Spatial Change 82 Migration 82 Incidental Diffusion through Migration 83 Religious Meanings in Migration 87 Persecution and Discrimination 90 Migration and New Beginnings 94 Conversion 96 Spatial Effects of Missionary Activity 99 Spatial Effects of Religious Hegemony 107 Spatial Effects of Selective Social Factors 110 Conversion and Place 111 Contraction 116 Conclusions 120 Notes 121 3. The Contextuality of Religions 128 Hinduism 132 Southern India 133 Muslim Conquests and Regional Diversity 136 Regional and Local Developments 139 Judaism 140 Sephardic Judaism 142 Ashkenazic Judaism 143 Hasidic Judaism 146 Reform Judaism 148 Ultra-Orthodox Judaism 150 Buddhism 152 Origins of Mahayana Buddhism 153 Origins of Theravada Buddhism 155 Diffusion in Central and East Asia 156 China 159 Korea 163 Japan 163 Tibet 166 Mongolia 170 Diffusion in Southeast Asia 171 Burma and Thailand 172 Cambodia and Laos 175 Vietnam 176 Christianity 178 Eastern and Western Christianity 180 Eastern Orthodoxy 183 Roman Catholicism 185 Protestantism 188 Lutheranism 189 Zwinglianism 191 Calvinism 192 Anglicanism 195 Puritanism and Pietism 196 Radicals and Separatists 198 Christianity in the Americas 201 Christianity in Africa 204 Islam 207 Sunni Islam 208 Sunni Legal Schools 209 Sufism 212 Reformism and Revivalism 217 Sunni Funddmentalism 222 Shia Islam 226 Twelver Shiism 227 Shiite Sects 228 Modern Heterodox Sects 231 Conclusions 235 Notes 237 4. Religious Territoriality in Secular Space 240 Internal Expressions of Religious Territoriality 243 The Communal Scale 243 Communal Spaces 244 Hegemonic Religious Groups 248 Religious Minorities 250 Monastic Spaces 257 Narrower Scales 258 Body Space 258 Home and Family Space 269 Wider Scales 271 Imagined Communities of Believers 272 Religious Institutions 272 Less Formal Sources of lnteraction 275 Religion and Secular Social Structures 276 Religion and Political Structures 279 Intersections among Scales 283 External Expressions of Religious Territoriality 285 The Communal Scale 287 Public Space 287 Social Space 291 Narrower Scales 298 Religious Adherence 299 Moral Behavior 300 Wider Scales 302 The State 302 International and Global Concerns 310 Intersections among Scales 313 Conclusions 313 Notes 316 5. The Meanings and Uses of Sacred Space 320 Forms of Sacred Space 324 The Cosmic Scale 325 Holy Lands 328 Natural Spaces 331 Sacred Cities 333 Unique Local Spaces 338 Ordinary Local Spaces 342 Microscales 347 Adherent Interactions with Sacred Space 348 Ordinary Worship Practices 349 Life Transitions 351 Pilgrimage 353 Access to Divine Power or Guidance 354 Proximity to the Divine 356 Veneration of Devout Believers and Saints 358 Personal Religious Trdnsformation 359 Fulfillment of Religious Obligation 361 Demonstration of Penance 362 Imagined Spaces 364 Sacred Space as Contested Space 368 Conflicts between Religious Groups 369 Conflicts within a Religious Tradition 373 Conflicts between Religious and Secular Groups 377 Conclusions 381 Notes 382 6. Religion and Human Geography 388 Studying Religion 388 The Articulation of Cultural Identity 391 The Politics of Fundamentalism 394 The Impacts of Globalization 398 Conclusions 402 Notes 403 Glossary 406 Selected Bibliography 414 Index 420 About the Author 442 The only book of its kind, this balanced and accessibly written text explores the geographical study of religion. Roger W. Stump provides a full and impartial discussion of religious doctrines, beliefs, events, and practices. The author's broad, comparative approach is bolstered by a wealth of case studies ranging from the major world religions to a diversity of indigenous, unconventional, and extinct religions. Illustrating religious concepts with both traditional and current examples, Stump considers the historical and contemporary interactions between religion and a wide range of social, political, and cultural phenomena. Presenting geographical and religious ideas in accessible language, the book offers an invaluable and unique examination of the intersection of religious belief and practice with the concepts of place and space. "The only book of its kind, this balanced and accessibly written text explores the geographical study of religion. Roger W. Stump provides a full and impartial discussion of religious doctrines, beliefs, events, and practices. Illustrating religious concepts with both traditional and current examples, Stump considers the historical and contemporary interactions between religion and a wide range of social, political, and cultural phenomena."--BOOK JACKET