Self-Identity in an Urban Society

Abstract

“In the city, we do not have peace and quiet; the seasons are barely noticeable except as the occasion for minor pleasures or discomforts; and we meet men in the aggregate, great swarming crowds of men. We cannot, therefore, reasonably expect to meet the God of repose and contemplation in the city; nor can we reasonably continue to proclaim private relationships with God, non-social relationships, as the ultimate ground of Christian belief. The creation of an urban myth equal in power to the anachronistic rural myth must look to the social experience for its source and power.”