1. The International Geography of Religion

2. 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

3. Distribution of Religions
Universalizing religions
Christianity
Islam
Buddhism
Ethnic religions
Hinduism
Other ethnic religions

4. 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

5. World Distribution of Religions
Fig. 6-1: World religions by continent.

6. Geographical Distribution Of Major World Religions

7. 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.

8. Major Religious Hearths

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

11. 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.

12. More Detail on the Diffusion of Christianity

13. 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.

15. The Religious Situation in Europe, 1560

16. Population Loss in Germany During the Thirty Years War

17. Resulted from exhaustion after the Thirty Years War (1618-1648)
Religious Wars Exhaust and Reshape the Geography of Europe – Treaty of Westphalia
Resulted from exhaustion after the Thirty Years War ( )
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 modern nation-state; a people, a territory in which they lived, a bureaucracy, and the king’s authority over his people formed international law

18. 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

19. 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.

20. Distribution of Shia and Sunni Muslims

22. Major Religions of Asia

23. 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.

24. Spread of Buddhism

25. 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

26. 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

27. Spread of Hinduism

28. 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 ( ? BC)
Later challenged by Taoism and Buddhism

29. 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

30. 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.

31. 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

32. 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 ( BC)
Contemporary of Confucius, but historical authenticity cannot be proven
Seeking a way to avoid constant warfare and other conflicts that disrupted life

33. 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

34. 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.

35. 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.

36. 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.

37. Organization of Space Places of worship Sacred space
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

38. 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.

39. 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.

40. 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

41. Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

42. Roman Provinces

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

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

45. 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

46. 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.

47. Religious Organization
Ecclesiae
Religious organization claiming to include most or all of the members of a society
Recognized as the national or official religion
Denominations
Large, organized religion not officially linked with the state or government

48. Religious Organization
Sects
Relatively small religious group that broke away from some other religious organization to renew the original vision of the faith
Sects are fundamentally at odds with society and do not seek to become established national religions.

49. 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

50. 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

51. 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