Geography and the World's Major Religions

For most cultures, values involve beliefs and practices concerning the nature and meaning of life and the position of human society within a divinely ordered universe. A religion is an organized system of values and practices involving faith in and worship of the sacred or divine.

Although emphasis on religion varies across cultures, religion is an important basis of cultural values. Moreover, religious practices and rituals often play a key role in the transmission of cultural values from one generation to the next and in the diffusion of cultures. Religion can have profound effects on cultural landscapes. It also influences interpersonal relationships and relationships between people and the physical environment.

The religions practiced throughout the world, are many and varied, but only a few major world religions can claim vast numbers of adherents. Christianity is the most prevalent religion of Europe and of areas influenced by European colonization. A majority of people in the Americas, Australia, and South Africa are Christians. Islam is the major religion of the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, and many parts of Asia. Hinduism predominates in India, and Buddhism is preferred in much of East Asia.

Within each of the major religions, there are major differences in religious doctrine and practice. In many cases, a religion splits into branches as a result of theological or organizational disputes. The three major branches of Christianity are Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodoxy. Although members of each branch share a common belief in the divinity of Jesus, specific implications of this belief and details of religious ritual and practice differ substantially among the three branches.

In examining the major religions of the world and their branches, the geographer is not particularly concerned with theological and historical considerations, although such knowledge is often useful to the understanding of geographical distributions and patterns. Rather, the geographer is concerned primarily with understanding the principles underlying the distribution and diffusion of religious belief and the impacts of religious belief and practice on the cultural landscape.

Universalizing and Ethnic Religions. Some religions are universalizing religions. A universalizing religion claims applicability to everyone. Any personwho accepts the basic principles can join a universalizing religion regardless of previous religious belief, language, race, or nationality. Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism are universalizing religions. Other religions such as Hinduism and Judaism are confined primarily to members of a particular culture and are identified primarily with particular regions. Religions whose membership is delineated along ethnic or national lines are known as ethnic religions.

Believers in universalizing religions often regard the conversion of nonbelievers as a religious obligation. Conversion to ethnic religions, in contrast, is not actively encouraged and may be forbidden. Ethnic religions are generally associated with particular regions or places.

Autonomous and Hierarchical Religions. The world's religions and their branches can also be classified as either autonomous religions or hierarchical religions. The beliefs and practices of autonomous religions vary considerably from one place to another. Individualbelievers and local congregations have wide latitude toorganize religious practices independently. Judaism,Hinduism, Islam, and many Protestant churches areautonomous.

On the other hand, theology and practice of hierarchical religions tend to vary little from place to place. Religious practice is organized and theological disputes are resolved at the national or international level. Local congregations that stray from orthodox beliefs and practices are sanctioned or ostracized. Roman Catholicism and Mormonism are examples of hierarchical religions.