Introduction: Theorizing and Studying Religion

Abstract

Though religion appears to play a prominent role in the contemporary political and cultural landscape of the United States and elsewhere, relatively few geographers are contributing toward a better appreciation of this phenomenon. A 2001 review of the field countered earlier charges of incoherence by noting particular strengths in geographic research on religion, and more recent publications by geographers have appeared, but the overall picture has not yet matched the strong wave of media treatment and popular interest in religion. A basic question is whether religion really matters in the world today. This question has been addressed in a highly prominent recent debate over secularization theory, which raises important implications for the relevance of geography and suggests the need for both theoretical and empirical contributions. The articles in this theme section comprise the contributions of five geographers toward theorizing and studying religion. Our broad intent is to reinvigorate discourse among geographers on religion, and suggest the important contribution geographers can make to a vibrant and important scholarly conversation.

Geographical contributions to understanding contemporary Islam: current trends and future directions

“…Yet, a decade after making this observation, Kong (2001: 211) noted that religion had 'attracted significant attention…within geography', and more recently still, Gale (2007Gale ( : 1016 has stated that it is clear that 'something like a mature disciplinary subfield has emerged'. There are overviews of both general and specific aspects of the geographies of religion (see for example Brace et al 2006;Holloway and Valins 2002;Kong 1990Kong , 2001Proctor 2006;Sopher 1981;Stump 2008) which provide useful guidance and ideas for future research. However, it is arguably research about Islam and Muslims that forms the largest body of scholarship within the geographies of religion evidenced by the recent publication of a number of edited collections on this topic (see e.g.…”

Discursos e imaginarios de cielo de líderes evangélicos de Santiago de Chile (2012-2014): ¿concepciones teocéntricas o antropocéntricas?

“…Esta rama de la geografía ha seguido desarrollándose en la actualidad, destacando los aportes de Ivakhiv, Stump, Kong, Warf, Vicent, Pickard, Park, Holloway, Tuan, Henn, Gökariksel, Howe, Knott, Lobato Ço-rrea, Rosendahl, entre otros (Freitag, 2006). Entre las principales líneas de investigación contemporáneas destacan la espacialidad del hecho religioso, las actuaciones espaciales de peregrinos y en centros de devoción popular, los procesos de mercadifi cación de los espacios y ciudades de culto, las cosmovisiones asociadas con las religiones, los imaginarios religiosos en la ciudad (Proctor, 2006). Por lo anterior, el presente artículo , al estudiar las percepciones y cosmovisiones de espacialidades signifi cativas de un conjunto de líderes evangélicos mediante el análisis de discurso, se enmarca en el paradigma cualitativo.…”

Church-state relations in Czechia

“…Geyer 2004;Madeley 2003). In the West (Huntington 1996), we find a relatively substantial polarization between (a) North America with its de-secularization (Berger 1999) and politicization of religion (Proctor 2006;Zelinsky 2001) and (b) Europe with its secularization and the rise of immigrant religion (Henkel and Knippenberg 2005;Knippenberg 2005). Madeley (2003) dealt with church-state relations in Europe and removed the state-economy dimension from the original Rokkan model and replaced it with a confessional dimension.…”