Recommended Books on the Geography of Religion

Al-Faruqi, Isma’il R., and David E. Sopher. 1974. Historical Atlas of the Religions of the World. New York: Macmillan. Pretty much what its title promises, this informative atlas allows you to see cultural diffusion in action over the centuries and millennia.

Esposito, John, Susan Tyler Hitchcock, Desmond Tutu, and Mpho Tutu. 2004. Geography of Religion: Where God Lives, Where Pilgrims Walk. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic. In the tradition of the National Geographic, this comprehensive reference book is beautifully illustrated.

Gottlieb, Roger S. (ed.). 1995. This Sacred Earth: Religion, Nature and Environment. London: Routledge. A good introduction to ecotheology.

Halvorson, Peter L., and William M. Newman. 1994. Atlas of Religious Change in America, 1952–1990. Atlanta: Glenmary Research Center. This atlas shows the changing pattern of denominational membership in the United States in the second half of the twentieth century, revealing the strengthening of some religions and the weakening of others.

Pui-lan, Kwok (ed.). 1994. Ecotheology: Voices from South and North. New York: World Council of Churches Publications. A very readable sampling of recent ecotheological thought.

Stoddard, Robert H., and Alan Morinis (eds.). 1997. Sacred Places, Sacred Spaces: The Geography of Pilgrimages. Baton Rouge: Geoscience Publications. Published by the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University, these 14 essays, each by a different author, draw attention to Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and lesser Asian pilgrimage traditions, as seen from the perspective of cultural geography.

Stump, Roger W. 2008. The Geography of Religion: Faith, Place, and Space. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. This comprehensive study of all aspects of the geography of religion includes discussion and examples of world religions, modern religions, and religions of the past.