The defining characteristic of contemporary globalization is the accelerated circulation of people and ideas across the globe, aided by technology and typified by mass migration from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere. There is no lack of literature on globalization and transnational religion. Robertson and Chirico's is the earliest theoretical analysis of the link between globalization and religion, in which they point to the increasing eruptions of religious and quasi-religious concerns and themes within societies worldwide. This entry identifies four main dimensions of the contemporary relationship between religion and globalization.

First, religions currently follow intercontinental immigration networks, making their presence and recruitment now truly global. This is an important factor in many contemporary religious conflict zones, especially where these conflicts are based on economic and political ...