Religion and Space

In "Religion and Space" Lily Kong and Orlando Woods argue that space can be both a cause and effect of religious competition and conflict, as it reveals and enables expressions of religious power and control. They explore how religious and secular claims to space are negotiated, and discuss the changing role(s) of religion during the post-war period, with a particular focus on religion in the modern, post-secular and globalised world. By using extensive case studies they examine different instances of competition over religious space, including The Temple Mount/Haram el-Sharif in Jerusalem, loudspeakers in mosques, and the armed occupation of religious spaces in India, Pakistan and Thailand. Globalization is also shown to have given rise to new spaces of religious competition and conflict, and the authors explore how globalization has caused understandings of space to evolve in line with the growing focus on transnational networks and flows, and the globalisation of religious movements. Helping readers to understand how religious contestations result in religious violence, "Religion and Space: Competition, Conflict and Violence in the Contemporary World" is an innovative contribution to the study of religion, and is the first study to bring sacred space into conversation with religious violence.