Ecclesiastical Geography and Topography of the Christian World - Chapter VI

Geography of religions: Ave Maria Town, 

Florida

Chapter VI 

 Geography of Religions: The object of study and its particularity concerning Ecclesiastical Geography

Geography of Religions

            We must also mention that in the last decades (30 years) Anglo-Saxon science has evolved a new discipline called geography of religions which initially developed in the wake of cultural geography, church and geopolitics. The geography of religion studies the impact of religions on the environment and vice versus the environment's impact on religions. The discipline analyzes the role of religions in geographical dynamics such as the construction of territorial identities and the manufacture of public spaces, the impression of space and place in the formation of religious and sacred concepts and processes of institutionalization of religion. The geography of religion studies the mutual relationships between religions and space and the relationships between the territory and the buildings associated with the sign of the changing religious and sacred that is historically determined concretely by landscapes, cultures and social practices. The geography of religions claims to be a purely secular discipline, "theologically neutral", that is, investigate its object without all 'references to theological argument.

                Giuseppe Carta writes: 

"In a first step geographical knowledge was subordinated to theology and to the objectives set by religious institutions so we must speak of religious geography a particularly fertile current was represented by ecclesiastical geography, dedicated to mapping the spatial distribution of religions and seeking to support the Christian colonization and evangelization missions; between the 500 and 600 was developed biblical geography, geared to identify place names and location of places narrated in the Bible; in the late 700 flourished instead a theological perspective, which is He sought to prove the existence of God through the study of the natural environment, according to a conception of geography as observation of materials and sensitive aspects as a result of an act of divine creation. With modernity, geography became a discipline "theologically neutral" and even the domination of ecclesiastical geography, supported by new, more sophisticated mapping techniques, took the shape of new perspectives of scientific analysis."

            An example of the object of study and approach of the geography of religions is the surveys on Ave Maria Town, (See the Picture model above before reading it) new town planned in 2005 and still being built in Collier County, southwest Florida. Ave Maria is an area not totally incorporated and inhabited by American Catholics (mainly of Irish origin). In the intentions of the founder, billionaire Tom Monaghan, is conceived as an ideal city, the first just for Catholics (and second straight Catholic principles) in the United States of America, and, once completed, it will reach 30,000. It is a city of sectarian inspiration, the urban plan of the citadel consists of over 11,000 residential buildings and a university campus for Ave Maria University, in an allotment of over 5,000 acres. The media hype generated by this project was related to statements of intent of its founder, Tom Monaghan, who had publicly stated the fundamentalist character of the city, so we read in the newspapers, that he aspired to become strictly mono-haven and free from homosexuals and unmarried couples, an enclave in which pharmacies would not sell contraceptives and the media were filtered to ban pornography from its borders. It is a case in which religion becomes a landscape interweaving the public space and the sacred, the city is called "a specific local incarnation of religion".

Geography of religions: Saddleback Church, California, USA

Certain information essential to the cartography and the cartographic symbols

        The ecclesiastical cartography developed in parallel with the Civil and as well as was linked to the administration and the government in the Church and had the purpose of glorifying the Church and arguing with Protestantism. In general, we can see that there is a link between cards and power. However ecclesiastical cartography has developed its own method and has been working on its own sources.

            The maps depict the geographical characteristics of a region and are the result of scientific processing of various data, thus requiring a capacity to read and interpret. The cards are a form of language (understood metaphorically or literally), are mirror images used for presenting different visions of the world, but drive us also to seek empirical data concrete. Without going into the details of cartographic science above all we must say that the church papers and those concerning the history of the Church have several special symbols that are explained in the planimetric legends cards [rubric under which are the various conventional signs used].

        On the role of ecclesiastical cartographic symbols in history writes John Brian Harley in his paper cards, knowledge and Power:

"The role of the cards as a form of social proclamation is further enhanced by the classification and modes of representation systems, the so-called conventional or cartographic signs adopted to describe the different features of the landscape. It has long been one of the rules of cartographers to signal the small towns and villages with icons or abstract symbols, in proportion to their rank. However, the visual hierarchy of the first modern maps is often a replica of legal stratifications, feudal and ecclesiastical. In fact, the concept of a hierarchical society was by no means unknown to contemporary cartographers. Mercator, for example, in his atlas of 1595 had hoped to show "a census and accurate indication of the capitals of princes and nobles". Like other cartographers before him, he created a set of signs to represent the population, intended to prioritize human settlements represented on paper. These city cards occupy spaces, even taking into account the cartographic conventions, much higher than their territorial size. Even the symbols of castles, representative of the feudal and military power rank, are sometimes larger than the symbols for the villages, despite the small area they occupy on the ground. The coats of arms - symbols of territorial possession were for locating the seat of a gentleman, while the villages of renters who were dependent on him within the feudal order were marked with symbols lower, regardless of their population or their surface. This type of representation was particularly frequent in the German territory cards belonging to the Holy Roman Empire. These cards provide considerable attention to the geography of ecclesiastical power. 

The main message was often the omnipresence of the Church. That was in the territory "infidel" held by the Turks, in the lands under the influence of the papacy, usually in regions dominated by Protestants or seven parts such as the Hussites, the papers have announced the extension of the temporal possessions within the spiritual landscape. As a secondary message, not only do these cards reinforce the perception of the power of the Church as an institution in the company's breast, but also record the spatial hierarchies and conflicting denominations within the Church itself. On the previous point, we can see that the legend of Ireland card Boazio (1599), a pictorial symbol exaggerated "the bishop city," as well as on regional England reformed card symbols of steeples and towers are much larger than what demands the concept of vertical scale. In terms of hierarchy, different symbols for individualized archbishops and bishoprics, in the form of single and double-crosses, pastoral, mitre and other ecclesiastical headgear, still bear witness to the religious social organization. Still, the selective magnifications of cartographic signs are closely related to the loyalty of opposing religions. They are the expression of religious wars in Europe in early modern times." 

            But if sometimes cartographic signs react to changes in religious situations, they also tend to favor the status quo, to legitimize the hierarchy established in the older cards. They formed a socially conservative vocabulary. In France, for example, the cartographers at the crown service, have used the images as a form of state propaganda, emphasizing the administrative mechanisms of centralized bureaucracy, and describing various aspects of the legal code of the ancien regime. In 1721, codified Bouchotte seven administrative categories (duchy-periphery, principality, duchy, marquisate, county, viscounty, baronies) and five ecclesiastical degrees (Archbishopric, bishopric, abbey, priory, commandery), to encode regional maps (special cards)."

Symbols planimetric modern

            There are many planimetric maps contained in symbols: it is conventional symbols, internationally agreed, the explanation of which is contained in the legends accompanying the cards.

A few Examples of planimetric symbols

Conventional symbols in cartography are grouped into three categories: point, line, and area.

• The point symbols are used when one wants to locate an object, or a phenomenon, considering it as a point (for example, the peak of a mountain).
• The line symbols are used to represent roads, waterways, and borders (in fact, their appearance is reminiscent of a line).
• The areal symbols depict phenomena characterized by their geographical extension (a crop or the spread of a dialect).

            Even the writing of the place names, which is the way to bring back the names of places on the card, is among the cartographic symbols. If the element is point-like, the names always go to the right places; for writing linear representations should be placed parallel to the performance of the reference element, while the representations of areal names must be inserted within the surface itself. The diversity in characters and in their dimensions differentiate the objects as a function of their importance. (To be Continued)

[see. Giuseppe Carta, Representing the post-secular society: the geography of religions topics, and guidelines for: "Historically" 7, 2011 ].

Fr. Nicholas Macedon OCD

Carmelite Priory, Oxford.            

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