Grounded theologies: ‘Religion’ and the ‘secular’ in human geography

• Main Author: TSE, Justin K. H.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2013
• Subjects: cultural geography; geopolitics; intersectionality; postcolonial; religion; secular; theology; Geography; Religion
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3134; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4391/viewcontent/Grounded_Theologies___PV.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This paper replies to Kong’s (2010) lament that geographers of religion have not sufficiently intervened in religious studies. It advocates ‘grounded theologies’ as a rubric by which to investigate contemporary geographies of religion in a secular age. Arguing that secularization can itself be conceived as a theological process, the paper critiques a religious/secular dichotomy and argues that individualized spiritualities presently prevalent are indicative of Taylor’s (2007) nova effect of proliferating grounded theologies. Case studies are drawn from social and cultural geographies of religious intersectionalities and from critical geopolitics.