Faith in Motion : Religion in the 21 st Century

The twenty-first century is often characterized as an era of unprecedented mobility and interconnectivity, but it is also marked by efforts to reinforce national borders and curtail human movement. Paradoxes of mobility and immobility in our increasingly unequal world come into sharp focus when viewed through the lens of religion. Sociologists, anthropologists, and scholars of comparative religion have long called attention to the way that religion constitutes space and place, linking particular localities to encompassing cosmic schemes. The world’s major religious traditions emerged in the context of expanding empires and markets becoming, arguably, the first truly global social movements. In the current globalizing context, relocating individuals re-establish religious communities, or transport portable, malleable beliefs and rituals. Some ‘lose their religion’ in increasingly secular contexts; others adopt ‘foreign’ religions. What is certain is that religion mutates and accommodates with movement.