Religion and Community in the New Urban America

Paul D. Numrich and Elfriede Wedam

Takes seriously the role of religion in the late modern metropolis
Provides ethnographic accounts of how contemporary urban people create community through their congregations
Counters urban studies scholars, who may be skeptical that religion plays a significant role in creating the new urban context

Religion and Community in the New Urban America

Paul D. Numrich and Elfriede Wedam

Description

Religion and Community in the New Urban America examines the interrelated transformations of cities and urban congregations. The authors ask how the new metropolis affects local religious communities and what role those communities play 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, both city and suburban-this book describes congregational life and measures congregational influences on urban environments. Paul D. Numrich and Elfriede Wedam challenge the view held by many urban studies scholars that religion plays a small role-if any-in shaping postindustrial cities and that religious communities merely adapt to urban structures in a passive fashion. Taking into account the spatial distribution of constituents, internal traits, and external actions, each congregation's urban impact is plotted on a continuum of weak, to moderate, to strong, thus providing a nuanced understanding of the significance of religion in the contemporary urban context. Presenting a thoughtful analysis that includes maps of each congregation in its social-geographic setting, the authors offer an insightful look into urban community life today, from congregations to the places in which they are embedded.

Religion and Community in the New Urban America

Paul D. Numrich and Elfriede Wedam

Foreword by Martin D. Stringer
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction: The New Urban Era and the Religion Factor

Part I: Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
Chapter 1: Adding Religion to Chicago's Story
Chapter 2: Community and Congregations in the New Metropolis

Part II: Congregational Case Studies
Chapter 3: Neighborhood Parishes and Churches in a Restructuring City
Chapter 4: Area Mosques and Diverse Corridors
Chapter 5: Area Congregations in the City
Chapter 6: Area Congregations in a Suburban Boom Town
Chapter 7: Metro Congregations: A Wider View of the Restructuring Metropolis

Part III: Religion's Urban Significance: Chicago and Beyond
Chapter 8: Congregations and Change: Interpreting Religion's Significance in the New Metropolis

Afterword: A Case for Representativeness
Appendix A: Research Methods
Appendix B: Questionnaire
Appendix C: Field Notes on Worship Services
Appendix D: Protocol for In-Depth Study of Religious Congregations
Bibliography
Index

Religion and Community in the New Urban America

Paul D. Numrich and Elfriede Wedam

Author Information

Paul D. Numrich is a professor at Methodist Theological School in Ohio and Trinity Lutheran Seminary, and an affiliate research associate with the McNamara Center for the Social Study of Religion at Loyola University Chicago. He researches the social, civic, and theological implications of America's increasing religious diversity.

Elfriede Wedam is lecturer in the department of sociology and research associate with the McNamara Center for the Social Study of Religion at Loyola University Chicago. She has written on urban religion, community, the moral culture of the prolife movement and Catholic parishes in an international context.

Religion and Community in the New Urban America

Paul D. Numrich and Elfriede Wedam

Reviews and Awards

"The detailed congregational studies in this book help chart the way to a broader sense of the many ways religion builds community in contemporary urban America. A persistent theme is how the details of each congregation's life - its location, mission, and nature - shape its urban impact ... This book is a helpful companion for all those studying religion in the contemporary city." --David R. Bains, Reading Religion

"This book is an exquisitely organized example of ethnographic work...[T]he work is meticulously detailed...The book is very well indexed, enabling the reader to quickly locate key information. Finally, the authors include an excellent afterword that discusses the generalizability of their results. This section is crucial given the small sample size generally associated with ethnographic work. Numrich and Wedam intelligently argue the merits of their findings as applicable to urban change in other American metropolitan settings. This last note is a refreshing acknowledgement of the utility and limits of ethnographic findings. In sum, this book would make an excellent resource in advanced undergraduate or graduate courses on religion, urban sociology, or ethnographic methods. Moreover, anyone interested in urbanization, religion, congregational life, social change, or Chicago will find this book fascinating."--Contemporary Sociology

"Chicago has always been the epicenter for urban sociology, and now Numrich and Wedam have put religion definitively in the picture. Conceptually adept and ethnographically rich, this book shows us how congregations are shaped by the spaces in which they are located, and how they in turn shape this constantly evolving city." --Nancy T. Ammerman, Professor of Sociology of Religion, Boston University

"Highly recommended." --CHOICE

"Numrich and Wedam invite the reader to reexamine the role of religion, specifically the reciprocal relations between religion and urban change. This perspective encourages the reader to consider religion as both a dependent variable (how religion is affected by urban change) and an independent variable (how religion can influence urban change)." --Stephen A. Matthews, Pennsylvania State University, American Journal of Sociology