Public Religion and Urban Transformation : Faith in the City

Read Chapter One.àit will alter - or perhaps confirm - your thinking about ''publicreligion'' and how traditional and immigrant congregations address (ordon''t) member and community needs and attitudes and actions towardslarger social issuesàan obvious choice for religious andcongregational studies and urban sociology programs. It is alsovaluable reading for any cleric or layperson interested in howcontemporary urban religious collectives are shaped by and help shapethe lives of their own members, surrounding communities, and thelarger society. --CongregationsRich in cultural analysis, thick description, maps, photographs, and anecdotes, this book should be read by scholars, policy makers, religious leaders, and anyone who wishes to better understand one of the most exciting stories on the American urban landscape at the turn of a new century.--Robert Michael Franklin, President, Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta, GeorgiaThis book presents the initial results of a team-based ethnographic study aimed at understanding better the richness of religious life in the multiplicity of communities that make up modern Chicago.--Journal of Contemporary ReligionThe highly successful result of a team-based, ethnographic approach to understanding the diversity-racial, ethnic, cultural, economic-of Chicago''s religious communities, exploring important questions about religion''s public role in the metropolis. A must read for those interested in the religious diversity and pluralism of American society or contemporary urban restructuring.--Penny Edgell Becker, Department of Sociology, Cornell University, and Author of Congregations in ConflictAn interesting example of the challenge immigrants face as they attempt to emulate established American institutions while retaining those elements that allow them to function as cohesive communities of ethnic and religious identity.--Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Professor of Islamic History, Georgetown UniversityReaches across the boundaries of private faith and public action, of traditional turf and challenging new populations, of older generations and restless youth, of growing ethnic/religious groups where there can be no majority, and, as yet, no consensus... Uncomfortable but essential reading.--Carl S. Dudley, Codirector of Hartford Institute for Religion Research and Professor of Church and Community, Hartford Seminary, Hartford, CTFurnishes a rich and diverse insight into the changing American metropolis. Unlike virtually any other book I have read, it does so by examining how church leaders and members cope with these changes. In the end, we get stories not merely of churches and religious change, but of how a major social institution helps people of diverse faiths and backgrounds survive and succeed in the modern American metropolis.--Anthony M. Orum, author of City-Building in AmericaAmerican cities are in the midst of fundamental changes. De-industrialization of large, aging cities has been enormously disruptive for urban communities, which are being increasingly fragmented. Though often overlooked, religious organizations are important actors, both culturally and politically in the restructuring metropolis.Public Religion and Urban Transformation provides a sweeping view of urban religion in response to these transformations. Drawing on a massive study of over seventy-five congregations in urban neighborhoods, this volume provides the most comprehensive picture available of urban places of worship-from mosques and gurdwaras to churches and synagogues-within one city.Revisiting the primary site of research for the early members of the Chicago School of urban sociology, the volume focuses on Chicago, which provides an exceptionally clear lens on the ways in which religious organizations both reflect and contribute to changes in American pluralism.From the churches of a Mexican American neighborhood and of the Black middle class to communities shared by Jews, Christians, Hindus, and Muslims