Determining which religions people practice is a lot more difficult than just checking off a religious preference box on a government form, a religion expert said.
A small crowd of graduate students and faculty members convened Tuesday afternoon at the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs for a lecture and discussion with Todd Johnson, co-editor of the new religious encyclopedia “Atlas of Global Christianity.”
Johnson, Director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a CURA Visiting Research Fellow, is one of several speakers to participate in the Spring 2010 CURA Seminar Series on Religion and World Affairs. The series feature a diverse range of religious topics, each of which combines multiple scholastic disciplines.
Boston University Sociology Department Chairwoman Nancy Ammerman said the focus of the series is a combination of who CURA scholars wish to hear lectures from and what topics they are partial to.
“The institute has a particular interest in how religion and world affairs relate to each other,” she said.
The lectures mostly attract faculty and graduate students, though undergraduates occasionally attend, she said. The series bring scholars from varying disciplines in BU together for discussion.
“People are coming from a lot of different interests and bringing their perspectives,” she said.
Johnson’s area of expertise, religious demography, was of unique interest to CURA academics, she said. Knowing where Christianity exists in the world, and in what proportions, helps to support research in other disciplines, she said.
In his presentation, Johnson discussed the process and hardships associated with trying to census the number of people in the world who practice each religion. He said he draws information from a composite of sources.
“We’re trying to come up with the best estimate,” he said. “This is a highly interdisciplinary endeavor.”
Johnson explained how to find demographic information.
“The answer is anywhere and everywhere,” he said.
Johnson said his encyclopedia tries to provide an accurate picture of religious proportions in the world. His book is the “first scholarly atlas to document the shift of Christianity to the global south,” he said.
“We have maps of all the major religious traditions,” he said. “We’re mapping, for the first time, Christian affiliation at the provincial level.”
Johnson’s book also includes essays about Christianity from 1910-2010, written by 64 scholars from almost every region of the world, he said.
One unique feature of Johnson’s atlas that it represents all denominations of Christianity as one entity, known as Global Christianity, he said.
“Christians of all different kinds don’t like to be in the same book,” he said.
Jeff Dodge, a Marsh Chapel associate, said Johnson’s grouping of Christian denominations in the book resonated with him.
“I enjoyed the ecumenical approach to the definition of Christianity,” he said. “It’s good to see that there isn’t this exclusiveness between Protestantism and Catholicism.”
Johnson’s book highlights the idea that religious identity is more important than people usually think, he said.
School of Theology graduate student Rhoda Seraphim said she thinks Johnson’s encyclopedia is very helpful because it includes many different religions.
“I was very curious to know what Christianity looks like around the world,” she said.
Religious identity is a new way of identifying people in general, she said.
“[“The Atlas’] is very comprehensive in that respect.”
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