Faith on the Avenue: Religion on a City Street - Hardcover

Day, Katie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199860025 ISBN 13: 9780199860029

Publisher: OUP USA, 2014

Synopsis

In a richly illustrated, revelatory study of Philadelphia's Germantown Avenue, home to a diverse array of more than 90 Christian and Muslim congregations, Katie Day explores the formative and multifaceted role of religious congregations within an urban environment.

Germantown Avenue cuts through Philadelphia for eight and a half miles, from the affluent neighborhood of Chestnut Hill to the high crime section known as ''the Badlands.'' The congregations along this route range from the wealthiest to the poorest populations in Philadelphia. Some congregants are immigrants who find safety and support in close fellowship, while others are long-time residents whose congregations are actively involved in providing social services. Cities undergo constant change, and their congregations change with them. As Day observes, some congregations have sprung up in former commercial strips, harboring new arrivals and recreating a sense of home, and others form an anchor for a neighborhood across generations, providing a connection to the past and a hope of stability for the future.

Social scientists, urban planners, and politicians have long overlooked the agency of communities of faith in the construction of the social, cultural, economic, and physical reality of life in the city. Drawing on years of research, in-depth interviews with religious leaders and congregants, and a wealth of demographic data, Day demonstrates the powerful influence cities exert on their congregations, and the surprising and important impact congregations have on their urban environments.

About this title

Review:

Unique as well as worthwhile. (James V. Spickard, Review of Religious Research)

About the Author:

Katie Day holds the Charles A. Schieren Chair in Church and Society at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP USA
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0199860025
• ISBN 13: 9780199860029
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264