1. Chapter 6
Religion

2. Where are religions distributed?
Key Issue #1
Where are religions distributed?

3. Where Are Religions Distributed?
Universalizing religions
Seek to appeal to all people
About 60% of the world
Ethnic religions
Appeal to a smaller group of people living in one place
About 25% of the world

4. World Distribution of Religions
Figure 6-3

5. World Population by Religion
Fig. 6-1a: Over two-thirds of the world’s population belong to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism. Christianity is the single largest world religion.

6. Where Are Religions Distributed?
Universalizing religions
Christianity
The largest world religion (about 2 billion adherents)
Many adherents in Europe, the Americas
Three major branches
Roman Catholicism (51 percent)
Protestant Christianity (24 percent)
Eastern Orthodox (11 percent)
Other, smaller branches of Christianity comprise 14 percent of all Christians

7. Distribution of Christians in the United States
Figure 6-2

8. 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.

9. Where Are Religions Distributed?
Universalizing religions
Islam
The second-largest world religion (about 1.3 billion adherents)
Significant clusters in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia
Core of Islamic belief = the five pillars
Two significant branches
Sunnis (83 percent)
Shias or Shiites (16 percent)

10. 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.

11. Where Are Religions Distributed?
Universalizing religions
Buddhism
About 400 million adherents (difficult to quantify)
Significant clusters in China, Southeast Asia
The Four Noble Truths
Three branches
Mahayana (China, Japan, Korea)
Theravada (Southeast Asia)
Tantrayana (Tibet, Mongolia)

12. 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.

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

14. Where Are Religions Distributed?
Ethnic religions
Hinduism
The third-largest religion in the world (900 million adherents)
97 percent of Hindus are found in India
Many paths to spirituality

15. Where Are Religions Distributed?
Ethnic religions
Other ethnic religions
Confucianism (China)
Daoism (China)
Shinto (Japan)
Judaism (today: the United States, Israel)
The first monotheistic religion
Ethnic African religions
Animism

16. Shintoism and 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.

17. Ethnic Religions
Buddhism
Hinduism
Figure 6-5
Figure 6-4

18. Religions of the United States

19. Why do religions have different distributions?
Key Issue #2
Why do religions have different distributions?

20. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
Origin of religions
Universalizing: precise origins, tied to a specific founder
Christianity
Founder: Jesus
Islam
Prophet of Islam: Muhammad
Buddhism
Founder: Siddhartha Gautama

21. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
Origin of religions
Ethnic: unclear or unknown origins, not tied to a specific founder
Hinduism
No clear founder
Earliest use of Hinduism = sixth century B.C.
Archaeological evidence dating from 2500 B.C.

22. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
Diffusion of religions
Universalizing religions
Christianity
Diffuses via relocation and expansion diffusion
Islam
Diffuses to North Africa, South and Southeast Asia
Buddhism
Slow diffusion from the core

23. Diffusion of Universalizing Religions
Figure 6-6

24. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
Limited diffusion of ethnic religions
Universal religions usually compete with ethnic religions
Examples of mingling:
Christianity with African ethnic religions
Buddhism with Confucianism in China and with Shinto in Japan
Ethnic religions can diffuse with migration
Judaism = exception

25. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
Holy places
In universalizing religions
Buddhist shrines
Holy places in Islam = associated with the life of Muhammad
In ethnic religions
Holy places in Hinduism = closely tied to the physical geography of India
Cosmogony in ethnic religions

26. Diffusion of Universalizing Religions
Figure 6-17

27. Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?
The calendar
In ethnic religions = celebration of the seasons
The Jewish calendar
The solstice
In universalizing religions = celebration of the founder’s life

28. 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.

29. Why do religions organize space in distinctive patterns?
Key Issue #3
Why do religions organize space in distinctive patterns?

30. Why Do Religions Organize Space in Distinctive Ways?
Places of worship
Many types: Christian churches, Muslim mosques, Jewish synagogues, Hindu temples, Buddhist and Shinto pagodas, Bahá’í houses of worship
Figure 6-19

31. Church in New Mexico

32. Church in Vermont

33. St. John the Baptist in savannah

34. Shrine in Thailand

35. Shrine in Japan

36. Buddhist Wall Relief in China

37. Hindu Temple in Bangladesh

38. Shinto Shrine

39. Buddhist Pagoda

40. Omar Mosque in Jerusalem

41. Mosque in timbuktu, mali vs. abuja, nigeria

42. Scroll of
Isaiah
Mickve Israel
Western/Wailing Wall in Jerusalem

43. The golden temple amritsar, India

44. Bahá'í Houses
of worship

45. Angkor wat Cambodia

46. Why Do Religions Organize Space in Distinctive Ways?
Sacred space
Disposing of the dead
Burial
Other ways of disposing of the dead
Religious settlements
Religious place names

47. Cemeteries

48. Muslim Cemetery

49. Tombs

50. Religious Toponyms
Figure 6-21

51. Why Do Religions Organize Space in Distinctive Ways?
Administration of space
Hierarchical religions
Roman Catholics
Latter-day Saints (Mormons)
Locally autonomous religions
Islam
Protestant denominations

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

53. Roman Catholic Hierarchy in the United States
Figure 6-22

54. Why do territorial conflicts arise among religious groups?
Key Issue #4
Why do territorial conflicts arise among religious groups?

55. Why Do Territorial Conflicts Arise?
Religions versus government policies
Religion versus social change
Taliban and Western values
Hinduism and social inequality
Caste system
Religion versus communism
Eastern Orthodoxy and Islam in the Soviet Union
Buddhism in Southeast Asia

56. Why Do Territorial Conflicts Arise?
Religion versus religion
Fundamentalism
Religious wars in Ireland
Religious wars in the Middle East
Crusades (Christians in Muslim lands)
Jews and Muslims in Palestine

57. Two Perspectives on Palestine/Israel
Figure 6-26

58. Boundary Changes in Palestine/Israel
Fig. 6-15: The UN partition plan for Palestine in 1947 contrasted with the boundaries that were established after the 1948–49 War. Major changes later resulted from the 1967 War.

59. Jerusalem
Fig. 6-14: The Old City of Jerusalem contains holy sites for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

60. Israel’s “Separation Fence”
Figure 6-27

61. Distribution of Protestants in Ireland
Figure 6-23