Exploring the Contours of Transnational Religious Spaces and Networks

Abstract

Today, few scholars can deny that models of widespread secularization were largely overstated. Religion has shaped and continues to shape globalization and transnationalism as much as these forces have shaped religion. This is particularly true of international migration and the flow of religious ideas, practices, organizations, and movements people in diaspora have established through their faith traditions. Various scholars have attempted to map the complexity of transnational migration and religion with a certain amount of success, but there is considerable work left to be done. Drawing heavily from key scholars in the field and my own work with Ebaugh on transnational service movements, this chapter attempts to bring these various perspectives together to explore and debate the contours of transnational religious spaces and networks.