This study 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, neighbourhood-based and commuter - this book describes congregational life and measures congregational influences on urban environments.

This study 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, neighbourhood-based and commuter - this book describes congregational life and measures congregational influences on urban environments.

American 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 and the rise of "megachurches," Public Religion and Urban Transformation illuminates the complex interactions among religion, urban structure, and social change at this extraordinary episode in the history of urban America.

Selected and rev. papers from a series of symposia sponsored by and held at Saint Joseph's College, Philadelphia, during the academic year 1975-1976. Includes bibliographical references and index.

[Who has time for community in the modern metropolis? The answer may surprise you: apparently lots of us. As this book discusses, religious communities have long been an important way for people in all parts of the modern city to come together. Whether in.

Book Review

Collective action through organized social movements has long expanded American citizens’ rights and liberties. Recently, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has helped win living wage initiatives in more than 130 cities across the country. Likewise, congregation-based groups have established countless health, education, and other social programs at city and state levels. Despite modest budgets, these organizations—different in their approach, but at the same time working for social change—have won billions of dollars in redistributive programs. Looking closely at this phenomenon, Heidi J. Swarts explores activist groups’ cultural, organizational, and political strategies. Focusing on ACORN chapters and church federations in St. Louis, Missouri, and San Jose, California, Swarts demonstrates that congregation-based organizing has developed an innovative cultural strategy, combining democratic deliberation and leadership development to produce a “culture of commitment” among its cross-class, multiracial membership. By contrast, ACORN’s more homogeneous low-income class base has a national structure that allows it to coordinate campaigns quickly, and its seasoned staff excels in tactical innovations. By making these often-invisible grassroots organizers evident, Swarts sheds light on factors that constrain or enable other social movements in the United States. Heidi J. Swarts is assistant professor of political science at Rutgers University.