What Are Religious Hotspots?: An Introduction

This introductory article outlines the meanings behind and the reasons for suggesting “religious hotspots” as a new analytical concept in the study of religion. The idea of suggesting this concept is not to replace others – for instance, a pilgrimage site, a religious place, a supernatural place, or...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Numen
Main Author: Qvortrup Fibiger, Marianne (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2023
In: Numen
Year: 2023, Volume: 70, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-16
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Hotspot / Religious geography / Stätte
IxTheo Classification:AA Study of religion
AF Geography of religion
Further subjects:B Space
B Spatiality
B Pilgrimage
B religious hotspot
B Place
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Description
Summary:This introductory article outlines the meanings behind and the reasons for suggesting “religious hotspots” as a new analytical concept in the study of religion. The idea of suggesting this concept is not to replace others – for instance, a pilgrimage site, a religious place, a supernatural place, or a storied place – but to broaden the perspective and to emphasize the dynamic, multidimensional, and relational aspects of place, not least concerning how a religious place can be a hotspot for some and a cold one for others, but also how a place can change from being a hotspot to a cold spot and vice versa. Being a heated place, a religious hotspot can also have an unintended effect on people being there. They can either become “infected” by or “cured” of a feeling of religious or spiritual belonging. The concept is a contribution to the growing interest in space and place when analyzing religion, in recognition of how a landscape or a particular religiously legitimized site can be an important element in collective cultural, social, and political meaning-making.
ISSN:1568-5276
Contains:Enthalten in: Numen
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341673