Religion

ReligionThe International

Geography of Religion

Major Foci

• To describe the distribution of major religions

• To explain variations in diffusion of religions

• To discuss religious imprints on the physical environment

• To identify conflicts between followers of different religions

Distribution of Religions

• Universalizing religions– Christianity– Islam– Buddhism

• Ethnic religions– Hinduism– Other ethnic religions

Variations in Distribution of Religions (1)

• Origin of religions– Origin of universalizing religions– Origin of Hinduism

• Diffusion of religions– Diffusion of universalizing religions– Lack of diffusion of ethnic religions

World Distribution of Religions

Fig. 6-1: World religions by continent.

Geographical Distribution Of Major World Religions

World Population by Religion

Fig. 6-1a: Over two thirds of the world’s population adhere to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism. Christianity is the single largest world religion.

Major Religious Hearths

Diffusion of Universalizing Religions

Fig. 6-4: Each of the three main universalizing religions diffused widely from its hearth.

Diffusion of Christianity

Fig. 6-5: Christianity diffused from Palestine through the Roman Empire and continued diffusing through Europe after the fall of Rome. It was later replaced by Islam in much of the Mideast and North Africa.

More Detail on the Diffusion of Christianity

Christian Branches in Europe

Fig. 6-2: Protestant denominations, Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodoxy are dominant in different regions of Europe – a result of many historic interactions.

The Religious Situation in Europe, 1560

Population Loss in Germany During the Thirty Years War

Religious Wars Exhaust and Reshape the Geography

of Europe – Treaty of Westphalia

• Resulted from exhaustion after the Thirty Years War (1618-1648)

• Attempted to assert the imperial authority of the Pope and the Church of Rome.

• Central Principle - He who rules a region determines its religion.

Ended the war and gave the key elements for a Ended the war and gave the key elements for a modern nation-state; a people, a territory in which modern nation-state; a people, a territory in which they lived, a bureaucracy, and the king’s authority they lived, a bureaucracy, and the king’s authority over his people formed international lawover his people formed international law

Diffusion of Islam

• Origin – Mecca 613 a.d. • Prophet’s death in 1632

– Military expansion – Combined with hierarchical diffusion (social) – Created an Arab empire – Trade as important as religion – Culture, not just religion

Diffusion of Islam

Fig. 6-6: Islam diffused rapidly and widely from its area of origin in Arabia. It eventually stretched from southeast Asia to West Africa.

Distribution of Shia and Sunni Muslims

Major Religions of Asia

Diffusion of Buddhism

Fig. 6-7: Buddhism diffused gradually from its origin in northeastern India to Sri Lanka, southeast Asia, and eventually China and Japan.

Spread of Buddhism

Buddhism

• Third major proselytizing religion• No longer a major presence in the country of its

origin• Dissident offshoot of Hinduism• Founded 6th century BC in northern India by

Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, or Enlightened One– Born in southern Nepal

Buddhism• Beliefs originally spread through India• Made state religion of India in 3rd century BC

– Carried elsewhere by missionaries, monks & merchants

• While expanding elsewhere it declined at home– 4th century AD Hinduism revived– By 15th century had all but disappeared from India

• Spread throughout Asia outside India• About 350 million adherents today worldwide

Spread of Hinduism

Oriental Folk Religions

• Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism in China

• Shintoism in Japan

• Confucianism– Not a true religion (no worship of deity)

• Moral system, way of life

– Origins with Confucius (551-479? BC)– Later challenged by Taoism and Buddhism

Shinto

• Ancient native religion of Japan

• Practiced today as a set of rules and customs involving reverence of ancestors, celebration of popular festivals, and pilgrimages to shrines

• Developed from other early Japanese religions

Shintoism & Buddhism in Japan

Fig. 6-8: Since Japanese can be both Shinto and Buddhist, there are many areas in Japan where over two-thirds of the population are both Shinto and Buddhist.

Traditional Religions - Animism

• Belief that a spirit or force resides in every animate and inanimate object

• Worship of nature• Practiced in sub-Saharan Africa, among

natives of North and South America, Polynesia, native peoples of Siberia, natives of Asia, Australian Aborigines

• As many different forms as there are people practicing it

Taoism• Pronounced “Dow”• Roughly translated into English as “The Path”

or “The Way’– Refers to a power which envelops, surrounds and

flows through all living and non-living things

• Founder Lao-Tse (604-531 BC)– Contemporary of Confucius, but historical

authenticity cannot be proven– Seeking a way to avoid constant warfare and other

conflicts that disrupted life

Variations in Distribution of Religions (2)

• Holy places– Holy places in universalizing religions– Holy places in ethnic religions

• The calendar– The calendar in ethnic religions– The calendar in universalizing religions

Holy Sites in Buddhism

Fig. 6-9: Most holy sites in Buddhism are locations of important events in Buddha’s life and are clustered in northeastern India and southern Nepal.

Mecca, Islam’s Holiest

City

Fig. 6-10: Makkah (Mecca) is the holiest city in Islam and the site of pilgrimage for millions of Muslims each year. There are numerous holy sites in the city.

Hindu Holy Places

Fig. 6-11: Hierarchy of Hindu holy places: Some sites are holy to Hindus throughout India; others have a regional or sectarian importance, or are important only locally.

Organization of Space• Places of worship

– Christian worship– Places of worship in other religions

• Sacred space– Disposing of the dead– Religious settlements– Religious place names

• Administration of space– Hierarchical religions– Locally autonomous religions

Place Names in Québec

Fig. 6-12: Place names in Québec show the impact of religion on the landscape. Many cities and towns are named after saints.

Roman Catholic Hierarchy in U.S.

Fig. 6-13: The Catholic church divides the U.S. into provinces headed by archbishops. Provinces are divided into dioceses, headed by bishops.

Hierarchical Religions

• A hierarchical religion has a well-defined geographic structure and organizes territory into local administrative units, i.e. Roman Catholicism and Latter-Day Saints (Mormons)

• Pope Cardinal Archbishop Bishop Priest

Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

Roman Provinces

Roman Catholic Church Membership as a Percentage of Each Country's Population

Hierarchy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Religious Conflicts

• Religion vs. government policies– Religion vs. social change– Religion vs. Communism

• Religion vs. religion– Religious wars in the Middle East– Religious wars in Ireland

Distribution of

Protestants in Ireland,

1911

Fig 6-14: When Ireland became independent in 1937, 26 northern districts with large Protestant populations chose to remain part of the United Kingdom.

• Recognized as the national or official religion

• Denominations– Large, organized religion not officially

linked with the state or government

Religious Organization

• Ecclesiae– Religious organization claiming to include

most or all of the members of a society

Religious Organization

• Sects

Sects are fundamentally at odds with society and do not seek to become established national religions.

– Relatively small religious group that broke away from some other religious organization to renew the original vision of the faith

Religious Organization

• New Religious Movements or Cults

– New religious movement (NRM): small secretive religious groups that represent either a new religion or a major innovation of an existing faith• Similar to sects• Tend to be small• Viewed as less respectable than more

established faiths

Religious Organization

• Comparing Forms of Religious Organization

– Ecclesiae, denominations, sects, and new religious movements have different relationships to society

– Electronic communication led to the electronic church

Topics of Discussion• Religious culture regions, diffusion &

distribution• Religious ecology, or the relationship

between religion and the physical environment– How do different people view and use their

environment?– What imprint do different religions leave on their

environment?• Relationship between religion and culture,

economic and political systems• Religious conflicts