Gods of the City Religion and the American Urban Landscape [Paperback]

Fascinating insights into modern urban religious practice make Orsi's collection a must-read. Publishers Weekly

The essays provide insight into the cultural creativity, reinterpretation of worship and religious ingenuity of city people over the last 50 years. Library Journal

At last, a major dissection of the great mystery in modern American
lifehow religion and spirituality prospered amidst industrialization,
urbanization, and rampant technological change after 1880! Jon Butler, Yale University

Urban religion strikes many as an oxymoron. How can religion thrive in the alienated, secular, fast-paced, and materialistic world of the modern, Western city? The authors in this collection believe that cities not only can provide the settings for religious expression, but also are material to the experiences which give rise to those religious expressions. In this book, they explore the distinctly urban forms of religious experience and practice that have developed in relation to the spaces, social conditions, and history of American cities.

Introduction: Crossing the City Line
Robert A. Orsi
1. Libations on Linoleum: Ecological Dissonance and Vodou Ritual Improvisations between New York and Haiti
Karen McCarthy Brown
2. The Hindu Gods in a Split-Level World: The Sri Siva-Vishnu Temple in Suburban Washington, DC
Joanne Punzo Waghorne
3. Diaspora Nationalism and Urban Landscape: Cuban Immigrants at a Catholic Shrine in Miami
Thomas A. Tweed
4. Altared Spaces: Afro-Cuban Religions and the Urban Landscape in Cuba and the United States
David H. Brown
5. Moses of the South Bronx: Aging and Dying in the Old Neighborhood
Jack Kugelmass
6. The Religious Boundaries of an In between People: Street Feste and the Problem of the Dark-Skinned Other in Italian Harlem, 1920-1990
Robert A. Orsi
7. Heritage, Ritual, and Translation: Seattles Japanese Presbyterian Church
Madeline Duntley
8. We Go Where l3!