The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective PDF
Preview The Secular City: Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective
THE SECULAR CITY THE SECULAR CITY Secularization and Urbanization in Theological Perspective HARVEY COX With a New Introduction by the Author PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD Copyright © 2013 by Harvey Cox. Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu The author wishes to thank the editors of The Commonweal and of Christianity and Crisis for permission to use material already published in those magazines, and to the Association Press for permission to use material that first appeared in their series of pamphlets Revolution and Response. All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cox, Harvey Gallagher. The secular city : secularization and urbanization in theological perspective / Harvey Cox ; with a new introduction by the author. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-691-15885-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Church and the world. 2. Secularization (Theology) 3. City churches. 4. Cities and towns— United States. 5. Sociology, Urban. I. Title. BR115.W6C65 2013 261—dc23 2013008390 British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Janson Printed on acid- free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To Nina CONTENTS Introduction to the New Edition xi The Secular City: Twenty- Five Years Later xli Acknowledgments lix Introduction: The Epoch of the Secular City 1 PART ONE: THE COMING OF THE SECULAR CITY 19 1 The Biblical Sources of Secularization 21 Secularization vs. Secularism 22 Dimensions of Secularization 26 Creation as the Disenchantment of Nature 26 The Exodus as the Desacralization of Politics 30 The Sinai Covenant as the Deconsecration of Values 37 2 The Shape of the Secular City 46 Anonymity 47 The Man at the Giant Switchboard 49 Anonymity as Deliverance from the Law 56 Mobility 60 The Man in the Cloverleaf 62 Yahweh and the Baalim 65 3 The Style of the Secular City 72 John F. Kennedy and Pragmatism 74 VIII CONTENTS Albert Camus and Profanity 84 Tillich, Barth, and the Secular Style 94 4 The Secular City in Cross- Cultural Perspective 102 New Delhi and India 104 Rome and Western Europe 107 Prague and Eastern Europe 110 Boston and the United States 114 PART TWO: THE CHURCH IN THE SECULAR CITY 123 5 Toward a Theology of Social Change 125 The Kingdom of God and the Secular City 131 Anatomy of a Revolutionary Theology 135 6 The Church as God’s Avant- garde 148 The Church’s Kerygmatic Function: Broadcasting the Seizure of Power 151 The Church’s Diakonic Function: Healing the Urban Fractures 157 The Church’s Koinoniac Function: Making Visible the City of Man 171 7 The Church as Cultural Exorcist 177 PART THREE: EXCURSIONS IN URBAN EXORCISM 195 8 Work and Play in the Secular City 197 The Separation of Places of Work and Residence 198 The Bureaucratic Organization of Work 204 The Emancipation of Work from Religion 214 9 Sex and Secularization 227 The Residue of Tribalism 228 Remnants of Town Virtues 242 CONTENTS IX 10 The Church and the Secular University 257 PART FOUR: GOD AND THE SECULAR MAN 283 11 To Speak in a Secular Fashion of God 285 Speaking of God as a Sociological Problem 288 Speaking of God as a Political Issue 294 Speaking of God as a Theological Question 304 Bibliography 321 Index 329
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