Christianity and the City: Simmel, Space, and Urban Subjectivities

This article examines the growing scholarly interest in urban religion, situating the topic in relation to the contemporary analytical significance of cities as sites where processes of social change, such as globalization, transnationalism, and the influence of new media technologies, materialize i...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Strhan, Anna (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Berghahn [2013]
In: Religion and society
Year: 2013, Volume: 4, Issue: 1, Pages: 125-149
Further subjects:B Metropolis
B Morality
B Coherence
B Intersubjectivity
B Temporality
B Fragmentation
B urban interaction
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
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Summary:This article examines the growing scholarly interest in urban religion, situating the topic in relation to the contemporary analytical significance of cities as sites where processes of social change, such as globalization, transnationalism, and the influence of new media technologies, materialize in interrelated ways. I argue that Georg Simmel's writing on cities offers resources to draw out further the significance of "the urban" in this emerging field. I bring together Simmel's urban analysis with his approach to religion, focusing on Christianities and individuals' relations with sacred figures, and suggest this perspective opens up how forms of religious practice respond to experiences of cultural fragmentation in complex urban environments. Drawing on his analysis of individuals' engagement with the coherence of God, I explore conservative evangelicals' systems of religious intersubjectivity to show how attention to the social effects of relations with sacred figures can deepen understanding of the formation of urban religious subjectivities.
ISSN:2150-9301
Contains:Enthalten in: Religion and society
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3167/arrs.2013.040108