Religion and Community in the New Urban America
Paul D. Numrich and Elfriede Wedam
Abstract
This book examines the interrelated transformations of cities and urban congregations over the past several decades. How does the new metropolis affect local religious communities? What is the role of local religious communities in creating the new metropolis? Through an in-depth study of fifteen Chicago congregations—Catholic parishes, Protestant churches, Jewish synagogues, Muslim mosques, and a Hindu temple, city and suburban, neighborhood-based and commuter—this book describes congregational life and measures congregational influences on urban environments. The book challenges the notion t ... More
This book examines the interrelated transformations of cities and urban congregations over the past several decades. How does the new metropolis affect local religious communities? What is the role of local religious communities in creating the new metropolis? Through an in-depth study of fifteen Chicago congregations—Catholic parishes, Protestant churches, Jewish synagogues, Muslim mosques, and a Hindu temple, city and suburban, neighborhood-based and commuter—this book describes congregational life and measures congregational influences on urban environments. The book challenges the notion that religion matters little or not at all in shaping postindustrial cities, and that congregations merely adapt to urban structures in passive fashion. Taking into account the spatial distribution of constituents, internal traits, and external actions, a congregation’s urban impact can be plotted on a continuum of weak to moderate to strong, thus providing a nuanced understanding of the significance of the religion factor in the contemporary urban context. This book offers insights into the kinds and quality of urban community life today, from congregations to the social-geographic places in which they are embedded.
Keywords:
religion,
congregation,
community,
city,
metropolis,
urban,
new urban era,
Chicago
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2015 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199386840 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2015 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199386840.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Paul D. Numrich, author
Professor, Methodist Theological School in Ohio and Trinity Lutheran Seminary
Elfriede Wedam, author
Research Associate, Loyola University Chicago
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