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In Cities of Gods, Jörg Rüpke offers an entirely new vision of the history of religion—one in which religion has shaped cities and cities have shaped religion. Rüpke shows how religious actions and ideas have produced cities since urbanization began some 6,000 years ago—and how cities have, in turn, changed religious practices. Cities have created new mass rituals that instill the idea of an encompassing community; priestly hierarchies, religious organizations, and globalized religious traditions follow. Urban religion, Rüpke argues, helps people in cities build a world and an identity that make living in a risky and powerful space more bearable.

Rüpke explores early processes of urbanization in Mesopotamia and Asia, showing how people’s willingness to live differently creates urban space. In examining the dynamic relationship between urban and religious change, Rüpke considers the differences and commonalties of cities including Uruk, Jerusalem, Vanarasi, Chang’an, Cairo, Lhasa, and Kyoto. The construction of monuments, the embellishment and appropriation of beliefs and rituals, the inclusion of ancestors and deities in social life: each offers a different lens for a history of the city that is also a history of religion. Much of what we consider characteristic of religion and religious practices comes not from the lone cry of a prophet or the prayer of a saint but from an urban religion built from the solidarity of people living in cities.