Download Geographers distinguish two types of religions

Where Are
Religions
Distributed?
Geographers distinguish
two types of
religions:
ETHNIC &
UNIVERSALIZING
1.) UNIVERSALIZING
religions that attempt to
be GLOBAL by
appealing to all people,
not just those in a
particular location.
These religions usually
convey a message of
universal salvation, and a
primary focus is to attract
new adherents
Efforts to convert people to a
specific religion is called
PROSELYTIZING. In Christianity,
people who do this work are called
MISSIONARIES.
• 58% of the world’s
population practices a
universalizing religion.
The LARGEST THREE
Universalizing religions areChristianity – 2.1 billion adherents
Islam – 1.5 billion adherents
Buddhism – 376 million adherents
2.) ETHNIC
religions appeal
primarily to one
group of people
living in one place.
• 26% of world’s
population practices
an ETHNIC religion.
The LARGEST Ethnic religions areHINDUISM – 900 million adherents
CHINESE TRADITIONAL
(Confucianism/Taoism) - 394 million
ASIAN PRIMAL-INDIGENOUS – 300
million
AFRICAN TRADITIONAL – 100 million
World Distribution of Religions
World Proportion of Religions
16% of the Earth’s population
is nonreligious, either
rejecting religion or simply not
taking part in it.
• ATHETISTS reject the existence of
God altogether
• AGNOSTICS reject that anything
can truly be known about God- “I
don’t know, and neither do you”
UNIVERSALIZING
religions tend to be
internally divided into
BRANCHES,
DENOMINATIONS,
and SECTS
A branch is a large and
fundamental division within a
religion
Examples include:
• CHRISTIANITY –
• CATHOLIC / PROTESTANT/
ORTHODOX
• ISLAM –
• SUNNI / SHIITE
A denomination is a division of a
branch that unites a number of
congregations in a single legal and
administrative body
PROTESTANT =
• Baptist, Episcopal, Congregational,
Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal…
Division WITHIN denominations:
BAPTIST =
• Southern, NBC USA/America, Nat’l
Missionary Baptist, Progressive Nat’l…
A sect is a religious group that
has broken away from an
established denomination, or
which is not officially recognized.
Hundreds of
churches in
Africa are
unassociated
with any
denomination
DENOMINATIONS
& DISTRIBUTION
OF
UNIVERSALIZING
RELIGIONS
1.) Roman Catholic (51% of
world’s Christians)
2.) Protestant (24% of
world’s Christians)
3.) Orthodox (11% of
world’s Christians)
DISTRIBUBUTION
OF
CHRISTIANITY
Christianity in Europe
• Roman Catholicism
Southwestern and central
Europe.
• Protestantism
Northwestern Europe.
• Orthodoxy
Eastern and southeastern
Europe.
 93% of Christians in
Latin America are
Roman Catholic.
 In North America,
most adherents are
Protestant.
In the United States, approximately
half of the population is Protestant,
and another quarter is Catholic.
• Baptist churches are the
largest Protestant group in
the US, and are primarily
clustered in the South.
Other Christian denominations also have
significant geographic concentrations:
• LUTHERAN- Upper Midwest
• METHODIST- Midlands States
• MORMON – Utah & Surroundings
CATHOLIC majorities are
found in the WESTERN
and NORTHEASTERN
parts of the US.
Canada is most Protestant except
for Quebec, where a heavy
Catholic majority resides.
DISTRIBUTION OF
ISLAM
2 Main Branches of ISLAM-
SUNNI – 83% of Muslims
SHIA (SHIITE) – 17% of
Muslims
SUNNIS are evenly
dispersed throughout the
Islamic world.
SHIITES are highly
concentrated in Iran and
surrounding countries, as
well as in Syria and Yemen.
Although Islam is associated
with the Arab world, the
largest Muslim countryIndonesia- is not Arab.
Three branches of BUDDHISM
1.) Mahayana – 56% of
Buddhists
2.) Theravada – 38%
3.) Vajrayana – 6%
Often remain within the
culture where they originated.
 Have more clustered
distributions than do
universalizing religions.
 Often do not widely attract
adherents from other cultures
(not proselytizing).

Ethnic religion with largest
number of followers is
HINDUISM.
• 900 million adherents
• Nearly all
concentrated in India
and Nepal
UNIVERSALIZING
religions
form the majority in many
Asian countries.
 Christianity: the Philippines
 Islam: Indonesia & Malaysia
 Buddhism: Many continental
countries (also Japan)
Nearly 400 million Chinese
practice either Confucianism or
Taoism – called ‘Chinese
Traditional’ faiths.
300 million people
throughout Asia practice
‘primal-indigenous’
religions.
Most of these
lack a literary
tradition and
are transmitted
ORALLY
Asia’s Complex Religious Map
Religion in AFRICA
Like in Asia,
universalizing religions
dominate in most
countries, though ethnic
religions continue to exist
in more remote places.
Animists believe that inanimate
objects or natural events- like
natural disasters- have spirits
and conscious life.
• 100 million Africans adhere
to animism.
As universalizing religions (Christianity,
Islam) have expanded, ethnic religions
have been declining in Africa
An Ethnic Outlier: Judaism
Though it has deeply influenced
both Islam and Christianity, Judaism
is an ETHNIC religion.
• The world’s first MONOTHEISTIC
religion
• World’s 12 million Jews are highly
clustered, evenly divided between Israel
(2/5) and the northeastern United States
(2/5).
• Unlike universalizing faiths, Judaism is
not a PROSELYTIZING religion, meaning
its adherents do not actively promote the
conversion of others.