What Makes a Good City? Reflections on Urban Life and Faith

Bibliographic Data

ID12838533
AuthorsElaine Graham (0000-0002-0358-0624, 1The University of Manchester, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume2
Issue1
Pages7-26
Publication date2008-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Public Theology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1569-7320 • E-ISSN: 1872-5171
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/156973208x256420
OpenAlexW2007663894
LanguageEN
Citations received7

This article is a case study in public theology, drawing on the author's experience as a member of the Church of England's Commission on Urban Life and Faith (CULF). Following in the footsteps of the seminal Archbishops' Commission on Urban Priority Areas (ACUPA) report, Faith in the City (1985), CULF aimed to evaluate the future of the urban church and its role in the local community, arguing that the impact of faith-based organizations constituted a major contribution to local community empowerment and well-being. CULF coined the term 'faithful capital' (after Robert Putnam's concept of 'social capital') to express the added value that people of faith contribute to their local communities, and called for wider debate around the question 'what makes a good city?' This article also scrutinizes the Commission's theological method, and in particular its attempt to model a form of 'theology from below'; and in the light of the Commission's findings, poses questions for the future of public theology

Capital (architecture · Commission · Empowerment · Environmental ethics · Faith · Political science · Social capital · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of religion · Theology · Christian Theology and Mission · History · Law · Philosophy · Public Administration · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development

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