Religion and Regional Culture: Embedding Religious Commitment within Place

Abstract

Recently, there has been a call for social scientific studies of religion to start taking “place” seriously. This paper adds to this growing literature by embedding religious commitment within place. We propose that the tension religious groups experience with their surroundings partly depends on local contexts and that certain types of local contexts may generate more tension. These contexts include regions in which the nonreligiously affiliated constitute the majority of the population, such as the American Pacific Northwest (PNW) region. Analysis of qualitative data on evangelical and liberal Protestants from western Oregon and western Washington suggests that they are aware of and experience tension with the regional PNW culture, which shapes their religious experience.