Diffusion of Religion

7 Key excerpts on "Diffusion of Religion"

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  Sacred Worlds

  An Introduction to Geography and Religion

  • Chris Park(Author)
  • 2002(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Religions of the World edited by al-Faruqi and Sopher (1974).

  Even a simple summary of the distribution of major religions towards the close of the twentieth century indicates that many of them have spread considerably beyond their country of origin (Table 4.1 ). Thus, for example, Christianity has spread from an initial source area within present-day Israel to span the globe. Hinduism, in contrast, remains largely confined to its country of origin (India). Given the enormous impact of religion on many dimensions of human geography (see Chapter 1 , pp. ), the question of how and why religions spread at different speeds and in different ways is surely of more than marginal interest to geographers.

  Table 4.1 The spread of major religions around the world

  Origins

  One particularly striking aspect of the geography of religions is that all of the main world religions originated within a relatively small area in what is today south-western and southern Asia. The fact that they originated there at different times only serves to heighten the curious coalescence of religious birthplaces. Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century attempts to explain such puzzling geographical phenomena relied heavily on environmental determinism.

  Environmental determinism

  Environmental determinism is founded on the assumption that human activities are controlled or determined by the environment. The adoption of such a perspective in explaining the origin of the major world religions is not new. As far back as 1795, according to Buttner (1980:93), the German geographer Kasche pointed to the influence of climate on religion. Kasche (1795:35) wrote that ‘a raw or mild climate often has an influence which is often ignored but which is none the less remarkable. The gentle climes of Italy bring forth none of the phantoms, ghosts and apparitions that frighten the superstitious inhabitants of the colder North.’

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  Visualizing Human Geography

  At Home in a Diverse World

  • Alyson L. Greiner(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  This parade is in Washington, D.C. Courtesy National Khalsa (Khalistan) Day Parade Organization. 3. How has hierarchical diffusion factored in the spread of Christianity and Hinduism? 1. Where are the Indic and Semitic hearths? 2. How is the concept of diaspora related to the geography of religion? 1. Discuss the role of sacred spaces in religion. 2. Distinguish between modernism and religious fundamentalism. 3. Summarize the influence of religion on social institutions. 4. Describe the geography of Renewalism. A t the start of this chapter we discussed the close connection between religion and cul- ture. Indeed, many adherents describe their religion as a “way of life.” Of particu- lar interest to geographers are the ways in which religion colors how people understand and inter- pret the world as well as their place in it. As geographer Religion, Society, and Globalization LEARNING OBJECTIVES Roger Stump (2008, p. 23) has observed, “religious groups do not simply exist in space; they also imagine and construct space in terms related to their faith.” In the following sections, we explore some of the ways that religion shapes individual and collective views about territory, identity, and society. We begin with a consider- ation of sacred space. Sacred Space Sacred space is space that has special religious signifi- cance and meaning that makes it worthy of reverence or devotion. Sacred space includes specific places and sites that are recognized for their sanctity; however, a sacred space need not be territorially defined. The perfor- mance of religious rituals such as praying, for example, 126 CHAPTER 5 Geographies of Religion Via Dolorosa Church of St. Anne Armenian Catholic Church Solomon’s Throne Islamic Museum Western Wall Hurvu Synagogue Ramban Synagogue Sephardic Synagogues Church of the Holy Archangels (Armenian) Cathedral of St. James (Armenian) Armenian Patriarchate Christ Church (Anglican) Church of St.

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  Diffused Religion

  Beyond Secularization

  • Roberto Cipriani(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  (Cipriani and Costa 2015). All these people, both working together and separately, prepare the ground for the course that the adolescent will then have to pursue alone. In different cases, during this phase the diffusion of a religion, which is prevalent within a given context wide or restricted as it may be, takes place. Hence, the diffused religion, which originates in the family of ori- gin (the biological family) and proceeds through the subsequent genera- tions puts down roots. From one generation to the next, the religious creed is passed on almost uninterruptedly except for personal modifica- tions on the part of one or other of the parents or educators. Without this initial phase in the transmission of religious content, it is unlikely that those specialised in catechizing and religious formation may enter the scene. The seeds of the first religious socialization bear immediate fruit with the initiation of young people and their partici- pation in public religious life. Later on, one may note a further inves- tigation of the parameters of reference of the religion or even a partial withdrawal from it with attitudes that are more or less accentuated. However, it will be at a much later stage that the values diffused within 2 Socialization and Diffused Religion 29 the family and external environment will begin to operate, representing a discrimination between one action and another, between one choice and an alternative one and between a virtuous and a non-virtuous act. Modern diffused religion is not very different from that of the past. Indeed it is precisely its persistence that gives it its peculiar, almost structural, characteristic which Claude Lévi-Strauss (1963) would have understood as a solid core not easily touched by time but subject, nev- ertheless, to variations that may not be easily perceived. If anything changes, it does so at a secondary level regarding details rather than sub- stance.

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  The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Migration

  • Rubina Ramji, Alison Marshall(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 11 Research on migration and religion in the Latin American context A systematic approach FRANK USARSKI PRELIMINARY REMARKS Migration, here understood as a movement that causes an individual to dislocate his or her centre of life for a considerable period (Treibel 2008: 295), is a constituent of human history, and due to the increase of migration processes under the conditions of globalization, the topic ranks high on the agendas of different academic areas. One of the disciplines engaged in research of related issues is the study of religion, whose long-term interest in the matter has recently been reinforced by the currently growing relevance of migration and the fact that until today the dislocation of people is often deeply intertwined with religious affairs. As a result, scholars of religion, already sensitized for the intimate relationship of migration and religion from a historical standpoint, are now confronted with a wide spectrum of related contemporary events that demand the same thorough description and interpretation as, for example, the invasion of Arian-nomads into the realm of the Indus-culture and its role for Hinduism or the changes within Islam stimulated by the hijra of Mohamed and his followers to Medina. 166 BLOOMSBURY HANDBOOK OF RELIGION AND MIGRATION According to the two interrelated academic activities within the study of religion represented by the historical and the systematic approaches laid out by Joachim Wach (1924), any research of a single religious manifestation (historical dimension) demands additional reflections in terms of the systematic study of religion. The investigation of different cases of pilgrimage, for example, not only expands our knowledge of related practices and their spiritual justifications, in particular religious traditions (plural).

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  Understanding Geography and War

  Misperceptions, Foundations, and Prospects

  • Steve Pickering(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 5 Religious Geopolitics and the Geopolitics of Religion RELIGION: DIFFICULT FOR GEOGRAPHERS The geopolitics of religion remains surprisingly understudied and one of the reasons for this is that religion itself has been a difficult area for geographers to study; similarly, geographers are few and far between in religious studies. The work of Sopher (1967, vii) in which he refers to his attempt to map this ‘frontier territory’ is pioneering in this regard and while Yorgason and Dora (2009, 629) acknowledge that much progress has been made since Sopher’s work, they still ponder whether religion remains the last terra incognita for geographers. Kong (2001, 212) argues that while geographers have easily incorporated ideas like race, class and gender as social cleavages into their work, religion has been either forgotten or confused with race. Similarly, Tse (2013, 201) argues that religion ‘remains an undefined “black box” in human geography.’ Nevertheless, much has been achieved since Sopher (1967) and Kong (2010, 756) goes as far as to ask whether the geographical study of religion has finally arrived. International relations (IR) scholars have also had difficulty adapting religious analysis to their work, partly because of structural biases (similar to those discussed in the Preface), and partly because it is difficult for scholars from a rationalist tradition to relate to faith-based approaches. This is especially true of European scholars trying to understand the rela- tionship between religion and politics in the constitutionally secular USA: © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 S. Pickering, Understanding Geography and War, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-52217-7_5 115 116 S. PICKERING see the excellent work by Müller-Fahrenholz (2006).

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  Christianity in Africa and the African Diaspora

  The Appropriation of a Scattered Heritage

  • Afe Adogame, Roswith Gerloff, Klaus Hock(Authors)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Continuum

    (Publisher)

  Part Four Diasporic Perspectives This page intentionally left blank Chapter 18 Religion on the Move: Transcultural Perspectives. Discourses on Diaspora Religion between Category Formation and the Quest for Religious Identity Klaus Hock Apart from the intentional expansion of religions by mission, migration is one of the most important factors effecting religious dissemination. This is espe-cially the case for African individuals and communities. Africa, a continent perpetually on the move, has gone through various phases of internal and external migration, thereby experiencing the trauma of the transatlantic slave trade as an unprecedented mode of forced migration, as well as undergoing the new quality of intercontinental migration in the context of accelerated globali-zation in the second half of the twentieth century. This has also brought about the presence of smaller or larger migrant groups of Africans in Europe – and, in fact, the presence of religious traditions alien to the traditionally quite homo-geneous religious set-up in Europe. Against this background, it is amazing that, traditionally, for a long time migration research has not taken into account the significance of religion both for specifically, migrant communities, and generally, for migration as a global phenomenon – not even in view of the transatlantic African migration. On the other hand, the phenomenon of ‘religion on the move’ has only recently attracted the attention of scholars of Religious Studies who have finally started to acknowledge the significance of migrant religions for Religious Studies and the History of Religions. 1 For some time now, Migration Studies have started to focus on ‘diaspora’ as a specific mode of migration, whereas ‘diaspora religion(s)’ as a specific mode of religion on the move have drawn the interest of scholars of Religious Studies. But the very notion ‘diaspora’ poses some problems which only recently came under closer scrutiny.

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  Sociology

  A Global Perspective

  • Joan Ferrante, , , (Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  People responded by embracing, resisting, and creating local versions and adaptations. These transnational forces underlie a process known as pluralization, a situation in which “more and more people live amid competing beliefs, values, and lifestyles”—a situation that has “profound effects on religion” (Berger 2012). As Berger puts it, there are very few, if any, places on earth where people are not confronted by competing religious beliefs, values, and lifestyles, except perhaps deep within the Amazon rain forest or on some very isolated island. “If one wants to visit such Why Focus on Religion as a Transnational Force? d d j d d places, one must hurry up. They will soon be invaded by explorers looking for oil or minerals, terrorists looking for refuge and the commandos chasing them, zealous missionaries, and promoters of eco-tourism” (Berger 2012). Virtually everywhere in the world, people are aware that there is more than one option about what to believe and how to worship (Beyer 2007). With globalization of digital technologies, it may be impossible for any one religion to hold a monopolistic worldview. From a global perspective, people are much more likely to be free to join or leave organized religions, even as religious leaders resist or “grudgingly accept” the state of affairs. Thus, religion is increas- ingly becoming a “matter of individual decision” or personal pref- erence (Berger 2012). CORE CONCEPT 1 When sociologists study religion, they are guided by the scientific method and by the assumption that no religions are false. We live today in an “intensely religious world. . . . Not to see this, is not to see the world as it ‘really’ is” (Berger 2012; see “No Border, No Boundaries: Percentage of Population by Country That Claim a Religious Affiliation”).

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