Space for religion: a Belfast case study

Abstract

In the recent reassertion of the importance of spatiality in the processes of social reproduction, the significance of religious space has been very largely ignored. This omission is nowhere more evident than in Northern Ireland where, despite high levels of religious observance, remarkably little attention has been devoted to the spaces of religious life and practice. Religious space is not uniform: it is multi-dimensional, incorporating both the material and the metaphysical. In this paper we focus attention on the spaces of denominational allegiance and theological conviction, and use these as vehicles for elucidating social, political, and moral attitudes of Catholic and Protestant churchgoers in Belfast. Our findings reveal that, save for issues to do with constitutional identity, the monolithising of the Catholic and Protestant communities conceals the rich variety of religious cultures that profoundly influence everyday life in Northern Ireland. Focusing exclusively on bi-polar constitutional objectives, therefore, tends to deflect attention away from the diversity of underlying motivations.