God, Gotham, and Modernity

New York City's array of congregations, denominations, religious buildings, personnel, and modes of outreach might have exploded in size, depth, and variety even faster than its population grew, from seven hundred thousand in 1850 to nearly 6 million in 1920. Pre-Civil War religious organizational modes exploded in complexity in the next seventy years, crisscrossing religious boundaries in perplexing ways--some were hierarchical, some quasi-democratic yet clerical, some congregational, and all were accompanied by miniscule groups that appeared, disappeared, then appeared anew. Their varied strategies toward the city, worshipers, and internal order and discipline elude easy cause-effect conclusions beyond saying that many met remarkable success. Here, Butler argues that New York's major religious traditions embraced modernity and institutions as they entered the twentieth century, creating community, stirring individuals, and adapting religion to civilization's new circumstances as much in Gotham as they had done in the Jewish diaspora and the Roman Empire, sometimes failing, yet sometimes succeeding, leaving deep marks on society and individuals alike.