When God Comes to Town

<p> Around 1800 roughly three per cent of the human population lived in urban areas; by 2030 this number is expected to have gone up to some seventy per cent. This poses problems for traditional religions that are all rooted in rural small-scale societies. The authors in this volume question what the possible appeal of these old religions such as Christianity Judaism or Islam could be in the new urban environment and conversely what impact global urbanization will have on learning and on the performance and nature of ritual. Anthropologists historians and political scientists have come together in this volume to analyse attempts made by churches and informal groups to adapt to these changes and at the same time to explore new ways to study religions in a largely urbanized environment.</p>