GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECTS OF THE STUDY OF THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS

ABSTRACT

At first glance, there is little connection between geography and religion. Most people who are interested in the study of religion are not generally interested in the study of geography. So why is this chapter included? The fundamental justification for this is because many intriguing questions concerning how religion arises, spreads, and affects people’s lives have a spatial component (what happens where) and may be examined from a geographic standpoint. It is strange that so few geographers have taken up this subject, but that shouldn’t stop us from looking at some of the key issues. Space, place, and location—the where, when, and why of events—are the main topics of this chapter. With the limited space, it might be difficult to decide what information to include and what to omit. It has been primarily influenced by the desire to highlight the different sorts of research that geographers have conducted, especially those that focus on the distribution and patterns of religion in space and time. The true usefulness of the majority of geographical research on religion is in characterising spatial patterns, partly because these are frequently fascinating in and of themselves but also because patterns frequently imply processes and reasons.

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