The Spiritual City: Theology, Spirituality & The Urban

Come hear about Dr. Sheldrake’s’ latest book

from the back cover:

The meaning and future of cities is arguably one of the most important and challenging issues of our time.  In A Spiritual City, Philip Sheldrake provides a broad examination of the meaning and importance of cities within Christianity, uncovering some of its rich historical sources of urban thought and practice, as well as discussing some of the criticisms that Christianity has been hostile to cities and public life.  The result is a deeply informative and thought-provoking account of cities and city-making that invites readers to rethink the idea of the urban life.

The book unites contemporary thinking about urban space and the built environment with the latest in urban theology.  Sheldrake discusses the history of Christian urban thinking and practice in the first half of the book. He addresses its long-standing anti-urban bias and emphasis on inwardness and pilgrimage. In the second half, he reflects on the potential of cities to create a strong human community and a sense of sacred space. He delves into topics such as place identity, re-conceiving the sacred, redeeming memory, transformation and regeneration, and urban virtues. In doing so, Sheldrake puts forth a positive vision of the city in relation to Christian thought, along with ample ideas for its reinvention in the future.

Philip Sheldrake is a Senior Research Fellow in the Cambridge Theological Federation and director of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Spirituality at the Oblate School of Theology (Texas). Previously Leech Professor of Applied Theology at Durham University, he earlier taught at Cambridge and London University. He has taught and written extensively in the field of Christian spirituality, on the nature of space and place in religion, on the urban, and on spirituality more generally; Sheldrake is past president of the international Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality. He has written or edited eleven books, translated into several languages, including The Spiritual City: Theology, Spirituality, and the Urban (2014), Spirituality: A Brief History, Second Edition (2013), and Explorations in Spirituality: History, Theology and Social Practice (2010). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He trained in history, philosophy, and theology at the universities of Oxford and London.