Religion and Space

Reviews / Votes

This is a timely book on an important topic. It surveys the whole field and provides case studies from recent conflicts -- a useful reference for academics, policy-makers and anyone concerned about how religious interests can rise above the competition over common turf. -- Mark Juergensmeyer, Founding Director and Fellow, Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, and author of Terror in the Mind of God (2003) All those interested in religion and geography will find much to engage them here, but this interdisciplinary book will be especially welcome for those who want to understand how spaces can prompt religious conflict and how we might create a more peaceful world. -- Thomas Tweed, Department Chair and Professor, Department of American Studies, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, and author of Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion (2008) Timely, authoritative and compelling, Religion and Space encapsulates state of the art thinking within geographies of religion. While religions world-wide are often seen in light of conflict resolution and peace-building, the book centrally conceptualizes religions from the premise of competition, conflict and violence within pluralist societies under conditions of globalization. Drawing on several insightful sources, namely the Romanian religious historian Mircea Eliade and French Marxist philosopher Henri Lefebvre, the authors show how religious and secular claims to space have been and continue to be negotiated in the post-war period of modernity. The first study to confront sacred space with religious violence, we are provided with an important reminder of how a spatial perspective on religion explains the persistence of violence as well as a vehicle for social resilience and regulation. * Justin Beaumont, Spatial Planning & Environment, University of Groningen, The Netherlands *