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Religion
The International
Geography of Religion
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
Distribution of Religions
• Universalizing religions
– Christianity
– Islam
– Buddhism
• Ethnic religions
– Hinduism
– Other ethnic religions
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
World Distribution of Religions
Fig. 6-1: World religions by continent.
Geographical Distribution Of Major
World Religions
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.
Major Religious Hearths
Diffusion of Universalizing
Religions
Fig. 6-4: Each of the three main universalizing religions diffused widely from its hearth.
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.
More Detail on the Diffusion
of Christianity
The Religious Situation in
Europe, 1560
Population Loss in Germany During
the Thirty Years War
Religious Wars Exhaust and Reshape the Geography
of Europe
– Treaty of Westphalia
• Resulted from exhaustion
after the Thirty Years War
(1618-1648)
• 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

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
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.
Distribution of Shia and Sunni Muslims
Major Religions of Asia
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.
Spread of Buddhism
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
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
Spread of Hinduism
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 (551-479? BC)
– Later challenged by Taoism and Buddhism
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
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.
Traditional Religions - Animism
• Belief that a spirit or force resides in every
animate and inanimate object
• Practiced in sub-Saharan Africa, among
natives of North and South America,
Polynesia, native peoples of Siberia, natives
of Asia, Australian Aborigines
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 (604-531 BC)
– Contemporary of Confucius, but historical
authenticity cannot be proven
– Seeking a way to avoid constant warfare and
other conflicts that disrupted life
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
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.
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.
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.
Organization of Space
• Places of worship
– 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
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.
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.
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
Hierarchy of the Catholic Church
Roman Provinces
Roman Catholic Church Membership as a
Percentage of Each Country's Population
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
Homework:
Find at least 1 example for each of the following
in your textbook or from class to explain the
relationship between religion and the physical
environment.
1. How do different people view and use their
environment?
2. What imprint do different religions leave on
their environment?
• Religious culture regions, diffusion &
distribution
• Relationship between religion and culture,
economic and political systems
• Religious conflicts