Full Description
Around 1800 roughly three per cent of the human population lived in urban areas; by 2030 this number is expected to have gone up to some seventy per cent. This poses problems for traditional religions that are all rooted in rural, small-scale societies. The authors in this volume question what the possible appeal of these old religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, or Islam could be in the new urban environment and, conversely, what impact global urbanization will have on learning and on the performance and nature of ritual. Anthropologists, historians and political scientists have come together in this volume to analyse attempts made by churches and informal groups to adapt to these changes and, at the same time, to explore new ways to study religions in a largely urbanized environment.
Contents
List of Figures
Introduction: When God Comes to Town
Rik Pinxten and Lisa Dikomitis
PART I: NATION VERSUS STATE
Chapter 1. Religion and Nationality: The Tangled Greek Case
Renée Hirschon
Chapter 2. A Church Lost in the Maze of a City without References
Bruno Drweski
PART II: URBAN TRANSFORMATIONS
Chapter 3.The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Urbanism
Simon Coleman
Chapter 4. The Ecology and Economy of Urban Religious Space: A Socio-Historical Account of Quakers in Town
Peter Collins
PART III: URBAN MIGRATION
Chapter 5. Rural Immigrants and Official Religion in an Urban Religious Festival in Greece
Giorgos Vozikas
Chapter 6. From the City to the Village and Back: Greek Cypriot Refugees Engaging in 'Pilgrimages' across the Border
Lisa Dikomitis
PART IV: IMPACT OF MODERNITY
Chapter 7. Reading the City Religious: Urban Transformations and Social Reconstruction in Recife, Brazil
Marjo de Theije
Chapter 8. Modernity Contra Tradition? Taijiquan's Struggle for Survival: A Chinese Case Study
Dan Vercammen
Notes on Contributors
Index
