Why does religion matter for cultural geographers?

COVID‐19, Virtual Church Services and a New Temporary Geography of Home

“…The function, status, role, use and representation of religious spaces has changed significantly over time reflecting major socio‐economic, demographics and urban changes (Vincent & Warf 2002; Dwyer 2016). What is not always appreciated is how such moves are driven by theological understandings of the nature and goals of worship and the Church.…”

Sonic spaces, spiritual bodies: The affective experience of the roots reggae soundsystem

“…Whereas research was once dominated by the study of organised religions and the institutionalised praxis of religiosity, it has since given way to the exploration of more individualised interpretations and experiences of belief. This embrace of the “disruptive and unpredictable salience of the spiritual” (Dwyer, , p. 758; see also Kong, ; Bartolini et al., , ) is enshrined in Dewsbury and Cloke's () notion of a “spiritual landscape” and has yielded exploration of the everyday ways in which the spiritual becomes manifest – ways that often go beyond or reside outside of the formal prescriptions of religious spaces (Mills, ; Williams, ; Wigley, ; see also Holloway & Valins, ). Complementing this is an avenue of research that has adopted post‐phenomenological approaches to exploring the sensuous experience of the sacred by locating spirituality within the body (e.g., Holloway, , ; Maddrell, ; see also Kong, ).…”

“…Most recently, research has taken the informal, everyday experience of a spiritual landscape and explored it within the more ad hoc framework of non‐fixity. Importantly, this has opened the discourse up to how the “affective registers of time and space” (Dwyer, , p. 760) intersect with notions of religion and spirituality. Finlayson (, p. 304), for example, has shown how the sacred is “decidedly transient” and is only brought about through active processes of sacralisation in place, whilst Wigley () draws on the new mobilities paradigm to show how spiritual praxis is not confined to codified religious spaces, but can also be conducted during the flows and movements of everyday life.…”

“…Decoupling will open up possibilities for spiritual expression that go beyond the received authority of doctrinal religion and reveal a more sovereign sense of spiritual self‐realisation instead. I propose that whilst the body is mobile, constantly moving through the “affective registers of time and space” (Dwyer, , p. 760), the spirit is located within the body and is therefore fixed. Every body has a spirit.…”

“…Beyond opening us up to social connection and understanding, so too can the affective experience of sound bring about a form of spiritual connection and understanding as well. Such experiences often occur outside of the formal praxis of religion, which helps to explain why they have not yet been a focus of scholarship (Dewsbury & Cloke, ; Yorgason & della Dora, ; see also Dwyer, ). That said, given that new forms of spirituality have started to encroach upon (and subvert) the domain of “religion” (see Heelas et al., ; Bartolini et al., ), work needs to be done to identify and understand the spectrum of forms found in different contexts around the word.…”