Abstract
This essay explores the programmatic pedagogy that has long linked religion and maps. Through comparative juxtaposition of contemporary surfaces, it underscores the degree to which disciplinary constructs continue to shape cartographic representation of religiously defined space. It then examines this contemporary phenomenon in light of the historical role that religion has played in iteratively naming particular geographic landscapes authoritative. Extending the work of Catherine Delano-Smtih on “Maps as Art and Science” (1990; Cf. Maps in Bibles, 1991), it demonstrates the particular merits of melding “change” with “tradition” in a manner that troubles common cartographic nomenclature. Following Harley (in Cartographica 26:1–25, 1989), it simultaneously affirms the importance of deconstructing authoritative surfaces with more mindful utilization of contemporary cartographic tools. As religiously defined landscapes are here ‘re-drawn’ in ways that combine critical historical engagement with sophisticated digital artistry, both the most malleable, and the most stable maps are rendered less emphatic. Re-shaped and re-purposed, these surfaces no longer serve as static harbingers of hegemonic ‘truth’—or malleable registers of cultural idiosyncrasy—but symbolically supple interfaces that temper certainty. Absent an ideological agenda aimed at culturally affirming inherent authority, they effectively demonstrate the usefulness of inverting established pedagogies. As the traditional tactics that have dictated ‘mapping religiously’ are re-deployed, they serve as tools for ‘religiously minding the map.’ Persuasive influence, however, is contingent. Even as ‘the authority inherent in all mapped surfaces’ is re-defined, effective re-configuration remains grounded in shared cartographic assumptions.
Lillian I. Larsen and with Cartography by Steve Benzek
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Notes
- 1.
As mapped sequences eloquently communicate the rhetorical character of both text and cartographic contexts, they elucidate the degree to which how one defines religion—and represents religious ‘truth’—continues to be shaped by cultural and social norms, which have, themselves, rendered both religion and maps authoritative in character.
- 2.
Understood as a measure of ‘religious’ sensibilities and assumptions, its odd equivalencies underscore the degree to which maps retain unexpected capacity to effectively render patent otherwise unregistered, and often unrecognized, assumptions. As elucidating is subsequent analysis that visually parses this data along party lines. Buzzfeed reports that the “majority of Catholics and Jews are Democrats while the remaining ‘religions’ [emphasis mine] on the top-six list tend to be represented by Republicans.” Given that 21 out of 22 Jewish members are Democrats, the ‘Jews’ are here named the “most partisan” constituency; although Mormons remain a close second, with seven out of the eight Mormon members of Congress, identifying as Republican. States retaining a single seat—Idaho and Utah—derivatively bear the designation of representation by “one religion”—here, Mormonism (www.buzzfeed.com).
- 3.
The latter of these preserves a seat formerly filled by a Sikh representative, who served during the 1950s and 1960s.
- 4.
Aggregation of “the first member of Congress to describe her religion as ‘none’” remains an open question in both the Buzzfeed and Pew tallies.
- 5.
Explicitly addressing the degree to which, “over the past five decades, immigration has dramatically changed the religious landscape of the United States,” the Pluralism Project seeks to render visible the daily encounters with people of different religious traditions that take place in cities and neighborhoods across the United States. Devoted to documenting this emergent tapestry, an expanding network of affiliates has joined forces in efforts aimed at sketching “the contours of [a] multi-religious society, …explor[ing] new forms of interfaith engagement, study[ing] the impact of religious diversity in civic life, and contextualiz[ing] these findings within a global framework” (Pluralism Project 2012–2016).
- 6.
Apparent visual anomalies underscore the constructed character of religious truth. Likewise, mapped landscapes render patent the fluid character of static source material. They call attention to the pedagogical power of historical influence on the contemporary cartographic moment—whether articulated in words, surfaces, or symbol. Here, one must take seriously the complementary (and arguably commensurate) degree to which, in an era of increasing malleability, both cartographic and religious constructs have been imbued with a seemingly fixed character. In contexts increasingly defined by diversity of practice and presentation, this invites consideration of the terms that render particular maps and religions—and, as importantly, particular maps of religion—authoritative, while leaving others, virtually, ‘off the map.’
- 7.
In her focused study of “Maps as Art and Science,” Delano-Smith (1990: 66) delineates the content of this corpus in some detail. She suggests that “whatever the medium, manuscript or wall paintings or other,” one encounters representations drawn from Hebrew Scripture. These include “the Creation cycle (Eden, Adam and Eve, the Flood, Noah’s Ark); the Exodus cycle (the Israelites in Egypt, their Red Sea crossing, their forty years of wandering in the desert with associated events); the King [Monarchy] cycle (David, Solomon with his temple and its furniture, etc.); the Prophet cycle (Ezekiel with his vision of the rebuilding of the Temple, Daniel with lions, the young men in the fiery furnace, and his apocalyptic vision of the Four Beasts).”
- 8.
Delano-Smith notes the particular emphasis here placed on cartographically friendly narratives, like those included in the Gospels and Acts. She simultaneously signals sustained interest—even at this early point—in the narrative episodes related to the Apostle Paul.
- 9.
Delano-Smith (1990: 67) notes that “there was little that was entirely new about any of the maps in the set.” For example, although these maps came to be associated with Calvinist editions, exegetically, they likewise incorporated aspects of Luther’s teaching.
- 10.
Delano-Smith (1990: 67) observes, “an Exodus map of some sort was also included in almost every illustrated Calvinist (Genevan) bible from 1559 onwards.”
- 11.
Delano-Smith (1990) acknowledges the considerable investment required to create and print any 16th century mapped reproduction of a biblical landscape. She simultaneously argues that re-use of this common core of maps cannot be explained solely on economic grounds.
- 12.
Emblematic is William Farel’s premise that “he defeats the gospel who renders it uncertain” (Aux Lecteurs Crétiens, Proposition 7).
- 13.
Here recent maps produced by National Geographic are particularly provocative. See further discussion below.
- 14.
This map, with its accompanying article, explicitly links Paul’s journeys with contemporary pilgrimage. It also tacitly acknowledges growing historical awareness that Paul was certainly not the sole, or perhaps even primary, proto-Christian traveler. While content included in the primary surface mirrors contemporary convention in its delineation of color-coded itineraries, a small pull-out map traces the less familiar path of Thomas’s ‘apostolic’ journey to India.
- 15.
In measuring the success of the Protestant pedagogical program, one cannot ignore the degree to which the clear sequencing of this itinerary has increasingly come to define not only Paul’s life and investments, but derivatively, the westward, Eurocentric movement of emergent Christianity, itself. Whether encountered in the classroom, online, or in the appendices to a garden-variety Bible, a trajectory that begins in Jerusalem and ends in Rome, raises few questions. Instead, each mapped and re-mapped iteration reassuringly renders historically hypothetical constructs more authoritative. In turn, broad evidence for less linear, diasporic refractions of communal formation and contested individuation, becomes more difficult to discern.
- 16.
Roughly dated to the final full decade of Paul’s life (49–60 ce), this undisputed corpus includes: First Thessalonians, Philippians, Philemon, Galatians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and Paul’s culminating address to the Romans.
- 17.
The earlier subset of ‘disputed’ letters includes ‘Paul’s’ second letter to the Thessalonians, as well as texts addressed to the Colossians and to the Ephesians. On linguistic and theological grounds, this body of deutero-Pauline material is dated to the decades immediately following ‘the Apostle’s’ death. The subsequent subset of letters, often termed ‘the Pastorals’, includes two letters addressed to Timothy, and one to Titus. Loosely dated from the late 1st through mid-2nd century of the Common Era, these documents appear to be the work of a second generation of followers, still asserting Paul’s authority, and writing in Paul’s name.
- 18.
Along with its prequel, the Gospel of Luke, Acts has conventionally been dated to the final decades of the 1st century. In alternate consideration, this two-volume compendium is assigned a chronological frame that roughly aligns with the Pastorals. For a detailed summary of these debates, and comprehensive bibliography (see Pervo 1987, 2006, 2010; Penner and Vander Stichele 2003).
- 19.
Brock (1982: 9) emphasizes the “pernicious influence on the writing of almost all subsequent ecclesiastical history” exerted by Eusebius’ “picture of the history of the Christian church…being inextricably interwoven with the history of the Roman Empire.” The narratives recounted in Acts, and derivatively familiar maps of Paul, have arguably been similarly determinative in shaping Western perceptions of the geographical spread of early Christianity. Here, Harley’s (1989) seminal discussion of the rhetorical character of all mapped interfaces offers rich food for thought.
- 20.
Thanks to Jack Hawley, for affording access to his rich library of ‘World Religions’ textbooks, during graduate studies at Columbia University. Professor Hawley’s generosity fostered what remains a fascination with pedagogical and editorial investments, and ongoing critical exploration of ‘how’ religion is taught, both in classroom and civic settings.
- 21.
In classroom settings, the shifts in verbal and visual nomenclature employed across a spectrum of World Religions textbooks remain a significant register of the degree to which how one “defines religion” is manifested in mapped representation. Even cursory survey of the terminology used in a text’s ‘Table of Contents’, relative to included maps, is often revelatory.
- 22.
Now in its 13th edition, and respectively authored and edited by Noss and Noss (2011), A History of World Religions (original published in 1949 as Man’s Religions) might be named the oldest ‘living’ World Religions text. Until his death in 2010, David Noss served as posthumous editor of his brother’s foundational text. After editing/‘curating’ his brother’s volume for almost half a century, David Noss noted the degree to which shifts in defining nomenclature, even over the span of five decades, were dictated by market driven forces—that is, by publishing houses focused on retaining a loyal faculty readership—rather than authorial preference (Spring 2002, Personal Correspondence).
- 23.
It is interesting that the Noss brothers’ early map is one of few to globally register both Indigenous and Jewish presence. Lewis Hopfe’s, Religions of the World (1979), now in its 11th edition (2009), is similarly noteworthy for including a chapter on “Native American Religions.”
- 24.
This slim geographical footprint is inversely misrepresentative, relative to the statistical disparities encoded in the contemporary Buzzfeed maps discussed above. In fact, the strategies deployed in parsing data so as to suggest a relatively sizable subset of Jewish representation in Congress, here render Judaism’s ‘world’ presence almost singularly negligible. Each suggests something of a ‘mapped misnomer.’
- 25.
Among the most notable is Huston Smith’s (1995) iconic, Illustrated World Religions: A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions. As interesting, are Neusner’s (1994/2003), World Religions in America, and Oxtoby and Segal’s (2007), A Concise Introduction to World Religions (Segal’s focused re-working of Oxtoby’s earlier compendium). Respectively, Neusner and Segal’s volumes constitute the rare ‘World Religions’ text to be edited by a Jewish scholar.
- 26.
For example, as in the congressional maps with which discussion began, the geographic landscape that aligns with particular sectors of Christianity is often closely delineated. Less proximate (and/or less familiar) traditions are respectively represented as singular entities, or sometimes, capriciously constructed amalgams.
- 27.
Inversely consonant with the static contours that have defined popular maps of Paul, the diversity that characterizes both historical and contemporary configurations of ‘world’ landscapes must give pause.
- 28.
A recent grant, awarded by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, will support extending the strategies developed in re-framing ‘maps of Paul’, to ‘Re-drawing the Map of World Religions.’ Dispersed monies will fund a series of workshops that involve students and faculty in de-constructing, researching, and re-constructing, a geographic, critical, and spatially informed, ‘World Religions’ curriculum. See http://www.redlands.edu/news-events/news-landing-page/2016-news/february/support-from-wabash-center-will-support-curricula-on-re-drawing-the-map-of-world-religion/.
- 29.
A number of World Religions texts register such melding with nested surfaces distinguished by contrasting color or symbology.
- 30.
Whether ancient or contemporary, ‘secular’ or ‘religious,’ cosmic or mundane, discrete or global, the determining influence of clearly delineated contours can be traced across disciplinary and temporal divides. Iteratively imbued with mutually reinforcing innate authority, there is little question that ‘scientific’ maps, wrapped in religious ‘truth,’ continue to claim a static office that belies their pliable character. However, as the deceptively simple lines of digitally generated maps produce an illusion of surety that easily effaces the borders which separate representation from reality, the emergent ‘frontiers’ of mapping religion render any suggestion of certainty suspect. They invite, instead, more ‘mindful’ melding of religion and maps .
- 31.
The common emphases (no pun intended) that link Vincent Wimbush’s interpretive-historical insight with Harley’s seminal discussion of the rhetorical character of all mapped surfaces, offer a provocative frame for re-examining the relationship between religious text and map, and map as religious text.
Further Reading
Delano-Smith, Catherine. “Maps as Art and Science: Maps in Sixteenth Century Bibles” Imago Mundi 42 (1990): 65–83. Delano-Smith examines the Protestant pedagogical project presented in the first generation of ‘Maps in Bibles.’ While primarily focused on cartographic questions, her close analyses remain foundational to re-thinking the structural complementarities and confluences that link geography, information and spatial literacies, with contemporary conceptualization of religious landscapes. Cf. C. Delano-Smith, Maps in Bibles 1500–1600: An Illustrated Catalogue (Geneva: Librairie Drox S. A., 1991).
Eck, Diana. A New Religious America. New York: Harper Collins, 2001. This volume presents in narrative form, what the Pluralism Project documents in digital nomenclature (www.pluralism.org). Eck’s work, here and elsewhere, remains foundational to redefining the nuanced, and ever shifting spaces that anchor and contextualize, both historical and contemporary expressions of religious experience.
Harley, J. Brian, “Deconstructing the Map” Cartographica 26.2 (1989), 1–20. Harley’s relativization of the authority inherent in all mapped surfaces marks an essential counterpoint to the roles routinely accorded cartographic refractions of ancient and contemporary religious landscapes.
Knowles, Ann Kelly, et al., eds. Geographies of the Holocaust (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014). The work of Ann Kelly Knowles offers a particularly provocative set of models for essential consideration of why spatializing religious and cultural categories matters. While this most recent study examines those questions within a religio-historical frame, Knowles’ broader portfolio addresses, and contextualizes a rich array of spatial categories in evocative and nuanced ways; Cf. Knowles (ed.), Past Time, Past Place: GIS for History (Redlands, CA: ESRI Press, 2002).
Larsen, Lillian I. and Steve Benzek. “Minding the Gaps: Exploring Ancient Landscapes through the Lens of GIS” Transformations: The Journal of Inclusive Scholarship and Pedagogy 25 (2014), 45–58. Re-framing the role accorded digital tools in re-thinking contemporary manifestations of ancient source material, Larsen and Benzek invite further consideration of the degree to which ‘gaps’ in the religio-historical record, can usefully foster and facilitate contemporary critical engagement with authoritative textual tradition; Cf. “Min(d)ing the Gaps: Digital Refractions of Ancient Texts” in Ancient Worlds in Digital Culture (Claire Clivaz, Paul Dilley and David Hamidovic (eds.) Leiden: Brill, 2016), 128–147.
Scafi, Allessandro. Mapping Paradise: A History of Heaven on Earth (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006). Scafi presents a rich overview of the interface between religious sensibilities as a register of historical lived contexts. Eloquent prose and lavish illustration serves well to underscore the continuum of historical maps that imbue heavenly landscapes with this-worldly import.
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Larsen, L.I., with Cartography by Steve Benzek. (2017). Mapping Religiously, or Religiously Minding the Map?. In: Brunn, S., Dodge, M. (eds) Mapping Across Academia. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1011-2_16
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