THE INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF GEOGRAPHY AND RELIGION: A PRAGMATIC APPROACH

Scholars in every field have presuppositions, including assumptions about the nature of truth and the status of theory, and, drawing on my own spatial theory of religion, I begin by asking which philosophical framework seems most promising for the interdisciplinary study of geography and religion. I argue that pragmatism, especially as it found expression in the later writing of the philosopher Hilary Putnam, can be useful for answering some of the most vexing epistemological questions. To show the utility of my theory, and its pragmatist perspective on fundamental questions about meaning, truth, and interpretation, I end by considering its implications for the interdisciplinary study of geography and religion and identify some guiding theoretical principles