The geography of religion: faith, place and space

Until now, scholars interested in the geography of religion have had only a few broad surveys available. Pierre Deffontaines' (1948) text remains untranslated from its original French. David Sopher's (1967) and Chris Park's (1994) introductory texts have been critiqued for their writing styles. Roger Stump's new book The Geography of Religion (2008) fills this gap and stimulates future research in this understudied field. Social science undergraduate students and their instructors interested in the intersections of faith, space and place will appreciate the book's organizational structure and thematic clarity, provocative examples of both traditional and new religious movements and trends across multiple scales, and especially Stump's own passion for religion and politics.

Roger Stump reasons that if cultural geographers are indeed interested in human products and meaning across space and through time then careful attention must be paid to religion as a central element in cultural life. As articulated by the author, "Religion is interpreted throughout this volume as a cultural system, an integrated complex of meanings, symbols, and behaviors articulated by a community of adherents" (p. 7). In the introduction he hooks the reader with an intriguing case of a Manhattan Jewish eruv, a ritual space used by Orthodox Jews during observance of the Sabbath. Like so many of the poignant examples offered throughout the book, Stump's analysis of the eruv illustrates several spatial processes and concepts central to the geographic study of religion including: movement, diffusion, distribution, localization, place, space, and meaning.

The book's chapters are organized around four main themes: ( 1) the spatial dynamics of religious distributions; ( 2) the contextuality of religions; ( 3) religious territoriality in secular space; and (4) the meanings and uses of sacred space. Much of the material on the emergence, diffusion and localization of the world's religions will be familiar to veteran scholars and is readily available in other sources. However, Stump's passion for religion and politics comes through in his discussion of religious territoriality, the focus of the fourth chapter. Religious groups strategize internally to exude influence in adherents' daily lives as well as externally in the lives of non-adherents in secular spaces. Hegemonic and minority religious groups innovate in a variety of ways in order to influence their particular environment. Throughout the text the reader is reminded of the significance of scale in studying cultural life. From more narrow scales (i.e. the body, the family and the home) to wider scales (i.e. the state, the imagined community of believers, and the world) religious groups work to shape space and place according to their world views. While Stump is obviously well versed in the field's literature, he does not bombard the reader with clunky reviews and internal citations. Instead, previous scholarship is seamlessly woven into his discussion and carefully annotated thematically at the end of the book. The end pages also provide a useful glossary, however the terms are not offset within the body of the text.

Critics may be concerned with Stump's inattention to praxis. Stump reflects on his own bias against discussions of "'doing' the geography of religion." He sees much of that type of work as methodological "fashions of the moment," often dismissive of previous work, and lacking "a middle way" needed to advance the field of study (p. xvi). While this decision is common in the writing of most introductory texts due to their broad scope, considerations of reflexivity and positionality may have benefited Stump's discussion of fundamentalism. The reader will undoubtedly appreciate Stump's expertise on the subject as this was the focus of an earlier work of his. However, compared to fundamental factions within other faith groups, the book pays excessive attention to Islam. Some scholars may regard this emphasis as reinforcing damaging stereotypes.

Overall, The Geography of Religion offers an excellent and thought-provoking survey of the geographic study of religion. The book will undoubtedly inspire burgeoning cultural geographers to delve deeper into this often-neglected field.