Robert A. Orsi is Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University and author of The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950. In his perspicacious introduction to this collection of essays on urban religion, he points out that much of the distinctively American dimensions of modern day spiritual practice has developed in cities: Pentecostalism, settlement houses, Christian Science, gospel and soul music, immigrant street shrines and festivals, ecumenical efforts to combat poverty and homelessness, and spaces to encounter the many religious traditions of Asia and Africa.
The essays selected by Orsi provide a counter-story to the narrative created by urban architects, planners, and wheeler-dealers. Here urban religious practices create new holy ground and rituals in the midst of turmoil, change, and distraction. The Santeria (an Afro-Cuban religion) in David H. Brown's essay transforms apartments in housing projects into domains of the spirits. Members of St. Brigid's parish on New York's Lower East Side, described by Wayne Ashley, enact the Stations of the Cross in the neighborhood surrounding their church. Joseph Sciorro writes about the complex world of Italian-American street festivals in Brooklyn, and Karen McCarthy Brown shows how Haitians adapt to life in the city with their Vodou services. American religion is alive and well in urban landscapes creating new sacred spaces and flexible rituals.