中文摘要：

20世纪60年代以来,国外宗教地理研究日益成熟,已成为文化地理学的重要组成部分之一。除传统文化地理学之外,国外宗教地理研究也出现了诸如新文化地理学、宗教生态学、社会学等研究方向;其研究内容也从最初对宗教与地理环境关系的单一研究逐渐趋向多样化,宗教的分布与扩散、宗教文化区和宗教景观研究都得到了充分重视。新文化地理学由于融合了更多跨学科知识,而逐渐在宗教地理研究中占据主流。总体来看,国外宗教地理研究仍处于一个边缘地位,研究的内容和方法体系都有待进一步完善。

英文摘要：

Religion is closely related to geography. Both environmental determinism and religious determinism are incomprehensive, and the viewpoint of the interaction between religion and environment has gradually been accepted by most scholars. There are rich studies on types and stages of religious diffusion and of all the factors affect the religious diffusion, geographic, demographic and cultural factors are emphasized by most researchers. Evolution of religious landscape, interaction between religious landscape and other cultural ones as well as spatial behaviors of religious groups interest researchers increasingly. The research methods based on religions always distinguish with that on geography, and so does the empirical research with Religionswissenschaft. Both some quantitative models, like regression analysis, and some software technology, like GIS, have also been widely used in the research of geography of religion. In conclusion, foreign researches of geography of religion develop with some new methods and views. However, as multidisciplinary study, most of the existing researches of geography of religion are eclectic, descriptive and empirical, and theoretical ones are rare. Furthermore, the researches on geography of religion are not various enough, and an independent system of research methods has not yet been established. Kong suggests that the politics and poetics of religious place, identity and community should be paid more attention to. In fact, in addition to the traditional substantial study of the interaction between religion and environment, interdisciplinary studies on spatial structure, social structure, psychological and behavioral characteristics of religious organizations, researches on the spatial conflict between religious and secular culture, as well as on the symbolic significance of religious landscape, will continue to be expanding the field of geography of religion in the future.