The conference theme suggests that mobility through and beyond the city presents a particular challenge to religion. It is true that mobility depresses religious participation in the short run, but religious institutions in the United States—because of the recent “settlement” of that country and its sustained history of international and domestic migration—are well adapted to a mobile population and their typical forms are receptive to newcomers. In particular, the “congregational” pattern, which defines the local religious community socially rather than geographically, allows for mobility without wrenching deracination. Thus, religious institutions in the US tend to be “associational”, both supportive of and modeled on conjugal family patterns, and not plagued by a discontinuity between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft ideals. Despite “transnational” currents, today's immigrants to the US are recapitulating this history. Religion is salient to them, as one of the identities that they must negotiate in the acculturation process. Their religious institutions converge on the congregational model and serve as venues for the renegotiation of gender and generational relations.
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