Urban Religion: A Historical Approach to Urban Growth and Religious Change

249 Pages·2020·1.215 MB·English

by  Jörg Rüpke

Jörg Rüpke
Urban Religion

Jörg Rüpke
Urban Religion
A Historical Approach to Urban Growth
and Religious Change
ISBN 978-3-11-062868-5
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-063442-6
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-063136-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019952763
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Acknowledgements
Mygrowinginterestinandreflectiononurbanreligionfromahistoricalperspec-
tivewasoneoftherathersurprisingresultsoftheresearchpursuedandsupport-
ed under the umbrella of three different programmes: the Kolleg-Forschungs-
gruppe ‘Religious individualisation in historical perspective’ (financed by the
German ScienceFoundation,DFG,FOR1080from2008to2018);‘Livedancient
religion: Questioning cults and polis religion’ (an Advanced Grant financed by
the European Research Council from 2012–17); and an International Graduate
School on‘Resonant Self-world-relationships in ancient and modern socio-reli-
gious practices’ (financed by the DFG from 2017 onwards,GRK 2283).Traces of
theenduringinsightsIacquiredwhileworkingontheseprojectscanbedetected
more or less plainly throughout the book. Many colleagues have furthered the
development of questions and concepts that I draw on herein, including Jan
Bremmer, Harry O. Maier, Rubina Raja, Emiliano Rubens Urciuoli, and Markus
Vinzent in particular. Martin Fuchs, Paul Lichterman, and Anna Sun ensured
that the historical and sociological breadth of the topic was kept at the front
of my mind. Finally, Susanne Rau enabled me to professionalise the historical,
asmuchastheurbanstudies,sideofthiswork,andalsosharedintheeffortin-
volved in enlisting the support of the DFG, again lavishly provided in the won-
derfulformofaKolleg-Forschungsgruppe‘Religionandurbanity:Reciprocalfor-
mations’ (FOR2779, from2018 onwards).Itwas thetime provided bythis latter
projectandconferencesorganisedbyitthatallowedmetosystematiseandcom-
pleteaninitialstageofresearchintheformofthisbook.Colleaguesandfellows
within the group have offered both critical and encouraging comments on the
text (each equally valuable). In addition to those mentioned above, I would
alsoliketothankRanaBehal,SupriyaChaudhuri,PralayKanungo,AsumanLät-
zer-Lasar,AntjeLinkenbach,andMartinaStercken.The unstintingandongoing
supportoftheMaxWeberCentreforAdvancedCulturalandSocialStudiesatthe
University of Erfurt has been vital here and has taken on material form in the
shape of Elisabeth Begemann, Bettina Hollstein, and Diana Püschel.
ForsomeofthechaptersIowethankstofurtherindividualsandinstitutions
for their support in avarietyof forms.Chapter 2 is based on the August-Boeck-
Lecture at the Humboldt University, Berlin, and I am grateful to Markus Asper
for the invitation, as well as to Georgia Petridou and Federico Santangelo, and
theadditionalaudiencestheyinvitedfortalksatLiverpoolandNewcastle.Chap-
ter4wasinstigatedbyaconferenceonCicero’sDenaturadeorum,organisedby
ChristophSchubertandChristopherDiezatErlangenUniversity.Aresearchstay
at the Norwegian Centre for Advanced Study,Oslo, in the framework of the re-
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110634426-001
VI Acknowledgements
searchgroup‘The Demise of Religion’ (Michael Stausberg/James T. Lewis),pro-
videdtheleisuretimerequiredforwidereadingandthewritingofthefirstdraft
ofChapter3,whilediscussionsattheMaxWeberCentreimprovedthetext.Iam
grateful to Maren Niehoff and her colleagues for the invitation to her research
groupat the Israel Instituteof AdvancedStudy,Jerusalem and also amgrateful
for the feedback at the Centre and fromother readers of Chapter 8.Workon an
earlier version of parts of Chapter 9 was supported by agrant from the Federal
MinistryofEducationandResearch(BMBF)“DynamicsofJewishritualsinmulti-
religiouscontextsfromAntiquitytothePresent”attheMaxWeberCentreforAd-
vancedCulturalandSocialStudiesattheUniversityofErfurt(directedbyBene-
dikt Kranemann). I am grateful to the audience and, in particular, to Guenther
Stemberger and Charlotte Fonrobert for their detailed critique. Other parts
werepresentedasaKeynoteatthe2018annualconferenceoftheEuropeanAs-
sociationfortheStudyofReligionatBerneandIamgratefultoJensSchröterfor
the invitation. Further debts are noted in footnotes.
MygratitudealsogoestoManuelaSeifert,whofoughtwithmyendlesshand-
writtencorrectionstothefirstdraftofthebook.FredericArning,MaximilianGut-
berletandClaudiaHeisehelpedwiththebibliography,CarminaVolkersandJo-
hannes Benjamin Vonderschmidt with the index. Sophie Wagenhöfer encour-
aged me to develop my argument for a broader audience and found an
adequatematerialform,whileKatrinMittmannandAnettRehnerhelpfullyguid-
ed me through the process of production.
Paul Scade has not only corrected my English. His careful readings of the
textandthemanydiscussionsthathavebuiltuponthemhavenotonlyimproved
thetextualsurfacebuthavealsochallengedtimeandagaintheflowandword-
ingofmyargumentsand,ultimately,havemadeforadifferentbook.Therespon-
sibility for any remaining mistakes rests nevertheless with me.
Contents
Introduction: Urban religion in a historical perspective 1
 Religion in the metropolis 1
 From lived to urban religion 6
 The plan of the book 8
 Looking at religion in the city 16
. Introduction 16
. Religious agency and sacralisation 18
. Selectivity and canonicity asintensification of sacralisation 23
. Reflecting on the urban 25
. Urbanism and the formation of religious groups 27
 Before urban religion: Fustel de Coulanges and narratives of civic
religion 30
. The problem 30
. Polis religion 31
. Critique 37
. Comparative perspectives on cities in other regions and
periods 40
. Urbanised religion 43
 Urbanising and urbanised religion 47
. Introduction 47
. Religion as spatial practice 47
. Religion and urbanisation 51
. Religions as urbanising factors 53
. Urbanised religion 58
. Conclusion 60
 Presupposing the city: Philosophical piety as urbanised
religion 62
. Urban literature 62
. The city as the ideal place for a good life 64
. Religious phenomena as phenomena in a city 67
. Philosophical debate as an indicator of urbanity 73
. Conclusion: Urbanised religion 75
VIII Contents
 Crafting complex place: Religion and urban development 77
. Introduction 77
. ‘On places’ 79
. Time and place 81
. The idea of a city? 83
. Multiple appropriations 85
. Trajectories 86
 Materiality of religion in urban space: Neighbourhoods of a
metropolis 88
. Visible and material religion 88
. Religion and material objects 90
. Urban space 95
. Religious practices and the city 98
. Religion at the crossroads 102
. Conclusion: Religion and public space 112
 Urban resilience and religion: Attaching time to place 114
. Resilience and religion 114
. A wealth of practices 118
. Historical background: The first written Roman calendar 120
. Adding urban history 124
. Negative history 127
. Urban practices in the face of empire building 132
. Attachment to urban places 135
. Spatial interest and attachment to place in contemporary literary
texts 139
. Conclusion 142
 Urban Selves: Individualisation in urban space 145
. The problem 145
. The concept of the self 145
. An urban market for the shaping of the self 150
. Urban identities 153
. Citizenship and imagined cities 161
. Conclusion 165
 Urbanity and multiple religious identities 166
. Introduction 166
. Religious identities as seen by urban observers 167
Contents IX
. Semantics 176
. Construing identity boundaries in hindsight 177
. Mapping differences 179
. Prescribing differences in the Mishnah 182
. Urbanity in the Mishnah 184
. A particular and a general conclusion 187
Conclusion: Religion and urbanity 190
References 195
Index 233