The American People: Their Space, Time, and Religion

Worlds in Space: American Religious Pluralism in Geographic Perspective

“…5 That is, like all areas of human activity and experience, it occurs in and in relation to the space that constitutes the habitable surface of the earth. Saying so may seem to be stating the obvious, and is certainly not original: the centrality of space to American religion was suggested over a half century ago by historian of religion Sidney Mead (1954). But in the last fifteen years or so, religious studies has taken a "spatial turn," looking increasingly for theoretical insight to geography, which focuses on the interrelationships between human activities and the earth's surface and has examined concepts and experiences of space with growing sophistication.…”