Description
Book SynopsisPresents an exploration of the relationships among the rise of urban civilization, the decline of hierarchical, institutional religion, and the place of the secular within society. This book argues that secularity has a positive effect on institutions, and that God is present in both the secular and formal religious realms.
Trade Review"[This book] has all the earmarks of a cause celebre... Cox's treatment of 'secularization' is unflinching."--Daniel Callahan, Commonweal "[Cox] has opened up a full-scale debate."--Betty D. Mayo, Christian Science Monitor "Offers some brilliant insights... Fascinating and provocative."--Ronald H. Wolf, Journal of Economic Issues "I can think of few books in the past forty years that so thoroughly broke down so many walls between and among the sects, denominations, and churches that mark the religiously tangled American scene."--Michael Novak, First Things "Fresh, provocative, bold."--Robert J. O'Connell, S.J., Sociological Analysis "Poses significant questions and gives challenging answers."--Fred H. Blum, Ethics "With Pope Francis now in power, who seems more revolutionary than anyone before him, perhaps it is the perfect time for Cox's The Secular City to once again ignite our theological imaginations and continue the process of secularization and social change."--Robert Beghetto, European Legacy
Table of ContentsIntroduction 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 * 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 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
