City of Gods
Religious Freedom, Immigration, and Pluralism in Flushing, Queens
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- 11,99 €
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- 11,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
This study of a New York neighborhood’s remarkable religious diversity “deserves a place alongside Robert Orsi’s The Madonna of 115th Street” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
Known locally as the “birthplace of American religious freedom,” Flushing, Queens, in New York City is now so diverse and densely populated that it’s become a microcosm of world religions. City of Gods explores the history of Flushing from the colonial period to the aftermath of September 11, 2001, spanning the origins of the settlement called Vlissingen and early struggles between Quakers, Dutch authorities, Anglicans, African Americans, Catholics, and Jews to the consolidation of New York City in 1898, two World’s Fairs, and, finally, the Immigration Act of 1965 and the arrival of Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists, and Asian and Latino Christians.
A synthesis of archival sources, oral history, and ethnography, City of Gods is a thought-provoking study of religious pluralism. Using Flushing as the backdrop to examine America's contemporary religious diversity and what it means for the future of the United States, R. Scott Hanson explores both the possibilities and limits of pluralism. Hanson argues that the absence of widespread religious violence in a neighborhood with such densely concentrated diversity suggests that there is no limit to how much pluralism a pluralist society can stand. The book is set against two interrelated questions: how and where have the different religious and ethnic groups in Flushing associated with others across boundaries over time, and when has conflict or cooperation arisen?
Perhaps the most extreme example of religious and ethnic pluralism in the world, Flushing is an ideal place to explore how America’s long experiment with religious freedom and pluralism began and continues. City of Gods reaches far beyond Flushing to all communities coming to terms with immigration, religion, and ethnic relations, raising the question of whether Flushing will come together in new and lasting ways to build bridges of dialogue or further fragment into a Tower of Babel.
“A delightful journey through American religious history and into the future, as witnessed in the streets of what the author says is the most religiously diverse community anywhere.” —America
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1657, the people of Flushing, now a neighborhood of Queens, N.Y., drafted the Flushing Remonstrance, a plea for religious liberty and diversity, in the face of an attempt by New York governor Peter Stuyvesant to persecute anyone who was not a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. From colonial times, Flushing, which its residents often call "the birthplace of religious freedom," has teemed with religious diversity fostered by immigrants who bring their own religious traditions and fervently practice them. Hanson's intimate portrait of lived religion in this New York City neighborhood is at once tedious and inspiring. Hanson offers a detailed history of Flushing from its earliest colonial days, discussing its growth into a "community of churches" in the 19th century and its dramatic expansion in the 20th century beyond the "Protestant-Catholic-Jew" model into a bustling religiously diverse community where Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and Buddhists live side by side in relative religious harmony. Hanson points out that the relative absence of religious conflict in Flushing illustrates the promise of such a religiously pluralistic community, though spatial and theological limits challenge the quest for unity. He urges interaction and cooperation that lead to tolerance, ecumenism, and inclusivism, rather than conflict, intolerance, proselytism, and nativism. The prose is flat, but readers will still enjoy this glimpse at the lived religions of a particular community, which deserves a place alongside Robert Orsi's The Madonna of 115th Street.
