In this paper, we seek to map out the key coordinates in debates in Human Geography about the secularization and postsecularization of western modern societies. In particular, we spell out the specific geographies through which geographies of religion have been imagined. These commonly involve such spatial metaphors as islands, networks, spheres, and the like. Less attention has been given to s...

In this paper, we seek to map out the key coordinates in debates in Human Geography about the secularization and postsecularization of western modern societies. In particular, we spell out the specific geographies through which geographies of religion have been imagined. These commonly involve such spatial metaphors as islands, networks, spheres, and the like. Less attention has been given to s...

In this paper, we seek to map out the key coordinates in debates in Human Geography about the secularization and postsecularization of western modern societies. In particular, we spell out the specific geographies through which geographies of religion have been imagined. These commonly involve such spatial metaphors as islands, networks, spheres, and the like. Less attention has been given to s...

This article sorts recent approaches in the sociology of religion into six groups, each of which tells a different story about what his happening to religion in the late-modern world. One, the secularization narrative, sees religion in decline. A second narrative tracks a rise of “fundamentalisms” worldwide. A third notes that religion is becoming local, especially in the United States. A fourt...

Among the Victorian writers, George Eliot deserves to be a unique one. Her male pseudonym, the impugnation of Christianity as well as her nonconformist marriage achieve this stellar female novelist in British literature. Ironically, Eliot was exactly famous for describing social religion and morality of the day. Eliot’s attitude toward Christianity is dichotomous: though deeply influenced by Ch...

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 relig...

Building on gene-environment interaction (G × E) research, this study examines how the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene interacts with a situational prime of religion to influence prosocial behavior. Some DRD4 variants tend to be more susceptible to environmental influences, whereas other variants are less susceptible. Thus, certain life environments may be associated with acts of prosociality ...

People often behave as if category members share an essence, and essentialising a category in this way promotes inductive inference. Although natural kind categories have been predominantly studied, some social categories are essentialised and here we consider the inductive potential of religion categories for children in Northern Ireland. We asked seven-, nineand eleven-year olds in Catholic-m...

Th e primary debate among scholars who study the evolution of religion concerns whether religion is an adaptation or a byproduct. Th e dominant position in the fi eld is that religious beliefs and behaviors are a byproduct of cognitive processes and behaviors that evolved for other purposes. A smaller group of scholars maintain that religion is an adaptation for extending human cooperation and ...

The economics of religion is a relatively new field of research in economics. This survey serves two purposes – it is backward-looking in that it traces the historical and sociological origins of this field, and it is forward-looking in that it examines the insights and research themes that are offered by economists to investigate religion globally in the modern world. Several factors have infl...