The ways in which humans interact with their location is an important topic within sociological studies of religion. It is integral to the place of religion in secular society. 'The Location of Religion: A Spatial Analysis' offers an overview of the ways in which religion can be located within social, cultural and physical space. It examines contemporary spatial theory - notably the work of the influential sociologist Henri Lefebvre - and the many disciplines that have contributed to the spatial study of religion. This volume will be invaluable to all those interested in the role of religion in spatial analysis.

Can contemporary art say anything about spirituality? John Updike calls modern art "a religion assembled from the fragments of our daily life," but does that mean that contemporary art is spiritual? What might it mean to say that the art you make expresses your spiritual belief? On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art explores the curious disconnection between spirituality and current art. This book will enable you to walk into a museum and talk about the spirituality that is or is not visible in the art you see.

""What does it mean to be religious in the modern world?" This is the question posed by Yi-Fu Tuan, the esteemed humanist geographer. In this, his latest book in a long and distinguished career, Tuan turns to this specific challenge, which has been a uniting current in much of his previous work. To illustrate more fully the modern meaning of religion, Professor Tuan collaborates with photographer-artist Martha A. Strawn, who has devoted the last four decades making place-based photographs from around the world. Her stunning portfolio of photographs and short essays conclude the book." "Religion is a perennial human quest for safety, certainty, and spiritual elevation, Tuan argues, whose origins are oriented in place and particular cultural practices. In its highest reaches, religion moves toward universalism and placelessness. Drawing examples principally from Christian and Buddhist traditions, Tuan explores the ultimate placelessness of religious experience. Tuan's meditations, combined with the elegance and purpose of Strawn's photographs and essays, create a book that is both thought. provoking and quietly beautiful." --Book Jacket.

What social conditions and intellectual practices are necessary in order for religious cultures to flourish? Paul Griffiths finds the answer in "religious reading" --- the kind of reading in which a religious believer allows his mind to be furnished and his heart instructed by a sacred text, understood in the light of an authoritative tradition. He favorably contrasts the practices and pedagogies of traditional religious cultures with those of our own fragmented and secularized culture and insists that religious reading should be preserved.

Winner of the Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities Three understandings of the nature of religion--religion as experience, symbolic meaning, and power--have dominated scholarly discussions, in succession, for the past hundred years. Proponents of each of these three approaches have tended to downplay, ignore, or actively criticize the others. But why should the three approaches be at odds? Religion as it is practiced involves experiences, meanings, and power, so students of religion should attend to all three. Furthermore, theorists of religion should have an account that carefully conceptualizes all three aspects, without regarding any of them as more basic than the others. Visions of Religion provides just such an account. Stephen S. Bush examines influential proponents of the three visions, arguing that each approach offers substantial and lasting contributions to the study of religion, although each requires revision. Bush rehabilitates the concepts of experience and meaning, two categories that are much maligned these days. In doing so, he shows the extent to which these categories are implicated in matters of social power. As for power, the book argues that the analysis of power requires attention to meaning and experience. Visions of Religion accomplishes all this by articulating a social practical theory of religion that can account for all three aspects, even as it incorporates them into a single theoretical framework.

How did the United States, founded as colonies with explicitly religious aspirations, come to be the first modern state whose commitment to the separation of church and state was reflected in its constitution? Frank Lambert explains why this happened, offering in the process a synthesis of American history from the first British arrivals through Thomas Jefferson's controversial presidency. Lambert recognizes that two sets of spiritual fathers defined the place of religion in early America: what Lambert calls the Planting Fathers, who brought Old World ideas and dreams of building a "City upon a Hill," and the Founding Fathers, who determined the constitutional arrangement of religion in the new republic. While the former proselytized the "one true faith," the latter emphasized religious freedom over religious purity. Lambert locates this shift in the mid-eighteenth century. In the wake of evangelical revival, immigration by new dissenters, and population expansion, there emerged a marketplace of religion characterized by sectarian competition, pluralism, and widened choice. During the American Revolution, dissenters found sympathetic lawmakers who favored separating church and state, and the free marketplace of religion gained legal status as the Founders began the daunting task of uniting thirteen disparate colonies. To avoid discord in an increasingly pluralistic and contentious society, the Founders left the religious arena free of government intervention save for the guarantee of free exercise for all. Religious people and groups were also free to seek political influence, ensuring that religion's place in America would always be a contested one, but never a state-regulated one. An engaging and highly readable account of early American history, this book shows how religious freedom came to be recognized not merely as toleration of dissent but as a natural right to be enjoyed by all Americans.

Why has Los Angeles been a hotspot for religious activism, innovation, and diversity? What makes this Southern California metropolis conducive to spiritual experimentation and new ways of believing and belonging? A center of world religions, Los Angeles is the birthplace of Pentecostalism, the site of the largest Roman Catholic diocese in the United States, the home of more Buddhists anywhere except for Asia, and home base for myriad transnational, spiritual movements. Religion in Los Angeles examines historical and contemporary examples of Angelenos’ openness to new forms of belief and practice in congregations, communities, and civic life. Case studies include Latino spiritualities and social activism Hybrid Jewish identities Capitalism and fundamentalism in early twentieth-century Los Angeles The impact of the 1960s on Roman Catholic Angelenos Christianity through a Hindu lens. Highlighted throughout the work are themes including the impact of the city’s diversity on religious experimentation, the importance of Los Angeles’ location in relation to the Mexican border and as a gateway to the Pacific, and the impact of local politics, social trends, and cultural change on religious innovation. The volume also examines the creative pull between change and continuity and the recognition that religious communities participate in civic and global conversations. Religion in Los Angeles includes contributions by leading sociologists, anthropologists, and historians. This cutting-edge work will be of interest to students and scholars of religious history, religion in America, sociology of religion, American studies, urban studies, and race/ethnic studies.

A thought-provoking discussion of the public and political expression of America's diverse religious beliefs.

Scholars from a variety of disciplines explore the intersections of violence, memory, and sacred space

The ways in which humans interact with their location is an important topic within sociological studies of religion. It is integral to the place of religion in secular society. 'The Location of Religion: A Spatial Analysis' offers an overview of the ways in which religion can be located within social, cultural and physical space. It examines contemporary spatial theory - notably the work of the influential sociologist Henri Lefebvre - and the many disciplines that have contributed to the spatial study of religion. This volume will be invaluable to all those interested in the role of religion in spatial analysis.