Choice Review

Diamond, a social historian, blends history and sociology in this study of how urban growth and religious congregations influence each other. He nicely captures the complex dynamics that exist between congregational understandings of "community" and communities that are defined by the metropolitan spaces in which congregations (from urban to suburban to rural) undergo transition as the urban neighborhoods around them change. All of these congregations have become increasingly metropolitan. Diamond's focus is on the city and environs of Indianapolis, which might well restrict the appeal of the book. Nevertheless his emphasis on the continuing contributions of religious congregations, the souls of the city, will make this study relevant beyond the sociological data of Indianapolis that underlie it. Congregations remain strong centers of community in a time of urban change, but often do so as much by exclusion of certain groups as they do by inclusion; Diamond evenhandedly shows how this is so. Urban religious communities today are increasingly nonlocal in that congregants travel past many churches and synagogues to worship in the community of their choice. This practice keeps alive important centers of meaning in a centerless metropolis. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General readers; lower-level undergraduates through faculty. F. G. Kirkpatrick Trinity College (CT)