Cities of God traces urban culture of north America and Western Europe during the 1970s, to ask how theology can respond to the postmodern city. Since Harvey Cox published his famous theological response to urban living during the mid-1960s very little has been written to address this fundamental subject. Through analyses of contemporary film, architecture, literature, and traditional theological resources in Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa, Graham Ward lays out a systematic theology which has the preparation and building of cities as its focus. This is vital reading for all those interested in theology and urban living.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
...Cities of God provides a thoughtful and helpful approach to the treatment of gender and civic life within theology, and future theological discussions of the city will do well to work in conversation with Ward's approach..
–Journal of Religion, William W. Young III, Loyola College in Maryland
This is a very interesting book..
–William Cavanaugh, University of St. Thomas
This interesting...book will appeal to those interested not only in mysticism and process thought but also in the significance of religious experience in contemporary Christianity..
–Religious Studies Review, October 2001, volume 27 number 4
Ward has... produced a profound diagnosis of the city and a viable theological remedy.
–The Expository Times
The book is worth reading... [T]here is a humility here which acknowledges that 'our dogmatisms speak more about our fears than our aspirations'.
–Church Times
–Journal of Religion, William W. Young III, Loyola College in Maryland
This is a very interesting book..
–William Cavanaugh, University of St. Thomas
This interesting...book will appeal to those interested not only in mysticism and process thought but also in the significance of religious experience in contemporary Christianity..
–Religious Studies Review, October 2001, volume 27 number 4
Ward has... produced a profound diagnosis of the city and a viable theological remedy.
–The Expository Times
The book is worth reading... [T]here is a humility here which acknowledges that 'our dogmatisms speak more about our fears than our aspirations'.
–Church Times
About the Author
Graham Ward is Professor of Contextual Theology and Ethics at the University of Manchester and Executive Editor of The Journal of Literature and Theology. (OUP). He is the author of a number of books, including Critical Theory (Macmillan) and the editor of The Postmodern God (Macmillan) and The Certeau Reader (Blackwell). He is the co-editor, with John Millbank and Catherine Pickstock of Routledge's Radical Orthodoxy series.
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15 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ward unfortunately quickly moves from asking questions relevant to a great deal of Christian peoples like "What does it mean to be a Christian living in contempary urban settings" to entertaining flights of fancy revolving around questions of semiotics filled with post-modern jingoisms and pseudo-jargon without really making an compelling case for the connection between the two. The result is rather frustrating and makes much of writes unenlightening for practical theological concerns for Christian living. Ward obviously is more exhilirated about the idea of writing a theology of signification than of writing a theology of cities, for he spends much of his time addressing the former rather than the latter resulting in a seemingly endless discussion of irrelevant topics related merely to his own person theoretical interests such his much overplayed treatment of sexuality.
This, however, is not to berate the analyses that are present within work. It is clear that the relevancy of a theology of signs for the city arise for Ward from viewing the urban landscape as a type of text [an annoying tendency of bookish post-moderns who have read so many books that they start to think that the whole of existence is a text]. What is written about his theology of signs-or the ability to give a Christian reading of the [cultural] signs of the times-has a stimulating applicability to the notion of urbanity and Christian community and even newer concepts of modernized space such as those posed by our living much of our lives through the medium of cyberspace. His scholarship has wide-breadth and proves much more conversant in secular critical philosopher than many of more parochially minded theologian companions. Ward really does have a message to set forth upon the table for debate with many lucid observations worthy of consideration. In the end, his is a strong indictment of the cold, secularized universe that the decaying enlightenment tradition and its nihilistic detractors are shoving down our throats.
This work is eclectic drawing upon various sources ranging from obscure theology and philosophy to mass media [I was annoyed that he repeatedly misspelled the Wachowskis' name when discussing the Matrix-revealing he's not really so ultra-hip as he would like us to believe] and at times is very abstruse. It is hard to imagine it being of any value to anyone outside the academic or well-educated population. Nonetheless, it does provide a hearty alternative to the acquiescent and stale Christians portrayals of the city as one can find in the now defunct writings of Cox on secularity.
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First Sentence:
Faith in the City, the report of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission on Urban Priority Areas, was first published in 1985. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
ontological scandal, erotic community, trinitarian difference, analogical account, demonstrative identification, eternal aspiration, erotic communities, amor sui, theological cosmology, social atomism, realised eschatology, cyber city, gendered embodiment, erotic economy, postmodern city, ecclesial body, endless desire, sacramental body, analogical relations, local theologies, postmodern cities, objet petit, theological account, theological response, cultural metaphors Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jesus Christ, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Karl Barth, Michel de Certeau, Council of Trent, Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray, New York, Church of England, Gregory of Nyssa, Holy Spirit, John's Gospel, Kingdom of God, Middle Ages, Private Shop, Book Four, Jean-Luc Nancy, United States, Book Five, Book Three, Charles Jencks, Far Away, Harvey Cox, Henri Lefebvre New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Faith in the City, the report of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission on Urban Priority Areas, was first published in 1985. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
ontological scandal, erotic community, trinitarian difference, analogical account, demonstrative identification, eternal aspiration, erotic communities, amor sui, theological cosmology, social atomism, realised eschatology, cyber city, gendered embodiment, erotic economy, postmodern city, ecclesial body, endless desire, sacramental body, analogical relations, local theologies, postmodern cities, objet petit, theological account, theological response, cultural metaphors Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jesus Christ, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Karl Barth, Michel de Certeau, Council of Trent, Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray, New York, Church of England, Gregory of Nyssa, Holy Spirit, John's Gospel, Kingdom of God, Middle Ages, Private Shop, Book Four, Jean-Luc Nancy, United States, Book Five, Book Three, Charles Jencks, Far Away, Harvey Cox, Henri Lefebvre New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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45
books
cite this book:
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- Radical Orthodoxy: A New Theology (Routledge Radical Orthodoxy) by John Milbank on 7 pages
- Communities in Cyberspace by Peter Kollock on 4 pages
- Thinking Bodies (Irvine Studies in the Humanities) by Juliet MacCannell in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Postmodern Cities and Spaces by Sophie Watson in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Psychic Lives of Savages and Neurotics (Great Minds Series) by Sigmund Freud on page 123, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 100 books this book cites
- Deconstructing Sport History: A Postmodern Analysis (S U N Y Series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations) by Murray G. Phillips on 10 pages
- A Theology of the Built Environment: Justice, Empowerment, Redemption by T. J. Gorringe on 9 pages
- The Politics Of Human Fraility: Theological Defense Of Political Liberal (ND Faith in Reason) by Christopher J Insole on 4 pages
- New Directions In Philosophical Theology: Essays In Honour Of Don Cupitt by Don Cupitt in Front Matter, page 127, and page 158
- The Transformative Imagination: Rethinking Intercultural Theology by George M. Newlands on page 28, page 61, and Back Matter
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