ICS Calendar Title: “They Looked for a City”: Biblical, Theological and Sociological Perspectives on the City from Ancient Times to the Global Era
ICS Course Code: ICSD 132201/2232201 F15
Instructor: Dr. Clinton Stockwell
Term and Year: Fall 2015, Distance
Last Updated: August 27, 2015
4. Course Requirements and Description and Weighting of Elements to be Evaluated
6. Readings by Session (Sessions 1-13).
7. Supplemental Bibliography: Some Recommended Readings
More people live today in cities or metro-urban regions than in the countryside, and many cities today are megalopolises of ten million persons or more. Is the city sustainable? Can we live hopefully, faithfully and imaginatively in extreme urban contexts characterized often by inequality, poverty and violence; yet alive with vibrant cultural production? This course will look at the meaning of the city in history, using the lens of ancient and contemporary philosophical, historical, theological, and sociological writings, even as we seek to understand our role in anticipating urban challenges for a global age.
Session1. The Origins of Cities
Session 2: The Greco-Roman View of the City: Classical Foundations
Session 3: The City in the Ancient Near East (Old Testament Era)
Session 4: Christianity in the Greco-Roman World
Session 5. Augustine and Aquinas on Politics and the City
Session 6. Calvin, Geneva and the Reformation
Session 7. A City on the Hill: The City in Early American History and Thought. Winthrop’s Boston and Franklin’s Philadelphia
Session 8: Industrialization in 19th Century England: Charles Dickens vs. Frederick Engels and Karl Marx
Session 9. Sociologists and the City: The Chicago School and Birth of Urban Sociology
Session 10: Chicago, Missionary Center and Industrial Metropolis?
Session 11: The Global City: Sociological Perspectives on the City in the Global Era
Session 12: The Sustainable City. Are Cities Sustainable?
Session 13: Urban Ministry and Civic Engagement: Faithfulness, Challenge and Expectation
The paper should include the following three components:
1) Context Description;
2) Rationale (from the assigned readings);
3) Strategy/ Program/ or Project proposal for possible implementation.
i. Class participation: 10%- Interaction with Instructor and Peers
ii. Weekly Reflective Essays: 30%- Quality of your posts.
iii. Mid Term Paper (Historical): 20%
iv. Final Research Project/Paper (Social Engagement): 40%
Graham, W Fred. The Constructive Revolutionary: John Calvin and His Socio Economic Impact (Philadelphia: Westminster/ John Knox Press), 1979.
Meeks, Wayne A. The First Urban Christians: the Social World of the Apostle Paul. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
Session One: Origins of Cities (50 pages).
*Childe, V Gordon. “The Urban Revolution.” Town Planning Review. 21 (April 1950): 3-17.
*Gottdeiner, Mark, etal. “The Origins of Cities.” From: The New Urban Sociology. Edited by Mark Gottdeiner, Ray Hutchinsion and Michael T Ryan (Boulder: Westview Press, 2015): 25-50.
*Sjoberg, Gideon. “Origin and Evolution of Cities.” Scientific American. 213 (September 1965): 54-62. Reprinted in Alexander Callow, American Urban History. Third Edition. (Oxford University Press, 1982): 6-16.
*Stockwell, Clinton E. “The Church and the City, a Five Stage History.” The Urban Mission. September (1993): 29-36.
Session Two: he Greco-Roman View of the City [61 pages].
*Aristotle. “On the City.” From: Politics, Book VII. From: The Complete Works of Aristotle. Vol. II. Edited by Jonathan Barnes (Princeton University Press, 1984): 2100- 2117.
*Hittinger, John. “Plato and Aristotle on the Family and the Polis.” The St Anselm Journal (September 2013): 1-22.
*Kemerling, Garth. “Plato: The State and The Soul.” From: The Philosophy Pages. Encyclopedia Britannica (Nov 12, 2011). The Philosophy Pages by Garth Kemerling are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/2g.htm Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.philosophypages.com/referral/contact.htm
Pappas, Nicolas. “Justice and the City” [Chapters 2-4]. In: Plato and the Republic (London: Routledge, 1995): 59-79.
Pericles. “The Funeral Oration.” From Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War. Reprinted in: Princeton Readings in Political Thought. Edited by Mitchell Cohen and Nicole Fermon (Princeton University Press, 1996): 13- 17.
*Plato. “Critias.” From: The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Princeton University Press, 1987): 1212-1224.
Spark Notes. “Aristotle: Summary of Politics.” Downloaded 8/3/2015. Politics. http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/aristotle/section10.rhtml
Session Three: The City in the Ancient Near East (Old Testament Era). [111 pages]
*Nefzger, Ben G. “The Sociology of Preindustrial Cities. ” From: Lester Grabbe and Robert D. Haak, Editors. Every City Shall Be Forsaken: the City in Prophecy in Ancient Israel and the Near East (Sheffield Academic Press (JSTOR), 2001): 59-71.
*Roddy, Nicolae. “Images of the City in the Hebrew Bible.” In: Cities through the Looking Glass: Essays on the History and Archaeology of Biblical Urbanism. Edited by Rami Arav (Winona Lake, In.: Eisenbrauns, 2008): 11-22.
*Stockwell, Clinton E. “The Enchanting City: Theological Perspectives on the City in Post Modern Dress (Biblical Theology of the City).” From: Transformation (April- June 1991): 10-14.
*Meeks, Wayne A. The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul. Second Edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003): 1-73.
Session Four: Christianity in the Greco Roman World. [102 pages].
*Giorgi, Dieter, “The Urban Adventure in the Early Church,” in D Giorgi, The City in the Valley: Biblical Interpretation and Urban Theology (Atlanta: SBL, 2005): 53-68.
*Longenecker, Bruce, “Social Economic Profiling of the First Urban Christians,” In: After the First Urban Christians: The Social-Scientific Study of Pauline Christianity Twenty-Five Years Later, edited by Todd D. Still and David G. Horrell (London: T and T Clark, 2009): 36-59.
*Malina, Bruce. “The Pre Industrial City.” From: Bruce J Malina, The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology. Third Edition (Westminster/ John Knox Press, 2001): 81-90.
*Meeks, Wayne A. The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul. Second Edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003): 74-139.
Session Five: Augustine and Aquinas on Politics and the City of God [149 pages].
*Aquinas, St. Thomas. De Regno ad Regem Cypri (ON KINGSHIP TO THE KING OF CYPRUS). Translated by Gerald B. Phelan, Revised by Th. Eschmann, O.P.
Toronto: The Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1949. 10 pages.
*Augustine. “The Two Cities.” From: The Essential Augustine, edited by Vernon J. Bourke (Hackett Publishing Company, 1974): 197-219.
Augustine, “The City of God.” Selections in Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics (New York: WW Norton, 1988): 102-107. Introduction to St Augustine, p. 102.
*Graham, W. Fred. The Constructive Revolutionary: John Calvin and His Socio Economic Impact (Westminster/ John Knox Press, 1979): 1-94.
*Weithman, Paul J. “Augustine and Aquinas on Original Sin and Political Authority.” Journal of the History of Philosophy. Volume 30, Number 3 (July 1992): 353-376 (Article). Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Session Six: Calvin, Geneva and the Reformation [120 pages, plus one article on Calvin’s economics from three provided]]
Freudenberg, Mattias. “Economic and social ethics in the work of John Calvin,” Herv. teol. stud. vol.65 no.1 (Pretoria 2009). Online Download. http://www.researchgate.net/publication/45681533_Economic_and_social_ethics_in_the_work_of_John_Calvin
*Graham, W. Fred. The Constructive Revolutionary: John Calvin and His Socio Economic Impact (Westminster/ John Knox Press, 1979): 97-185.
*Luther, Martin. “The Christian and Society;” and John Calvin, “God and Political Duty.” From: Princeton Readings in Political Thought. Edited by Mitchell Cohen and Nicole Fermon (Princeton University Press, 1996): 194-204.
McKee, Elsie Anne. “The Character and Significance of John Calvin’s Teaching on Social and Economic Issues. ” From: John Calvin Rediscovered: The Impact of his Social and Economic Thought, edited by Edward Dommen and James D. Bratt (Philadelphia: John Knox Press, 2007): 3-24.
*Monter, E. William. “(Geneva) Cathedral and Market.” From: Calvin’s Geneva (New York: Basil Wiley, 1967): 1-22.
Stuckelberger, Christoph. “No Interest from the Poor: Calvin’s Economic and Banking Ethics.” From: Calvin Global: How Faith Influences Societies. Edited by Christoph Stuckelberger and Reinhold Bernhardt (Globalethics.net, 2009): 53-70.
Session Seven: A City on the Hill: The City in Early American History and Thought. Winthrop’s Boston and Franklin’s Philadelphia. [86 pages].
*Franklin, Benjamin. “Autobiography, Book III.” From: Benjamin Franklin, Writings (New York: Library of America, 1967): 1395-1430.
*Franklin, Benjamin. “Essays on “The Laboring Poor (pp. 622-625);” “A Conversation Regarding Slavery (pp. 646-653);” “Toleration in Old and New England (pp. 673-677);”and “Remarks Regarding the Savages of North America (pp. 969-974).” From: Benjamin Franklin, Writings (New York: Library of America, 1967):
*Rutman, Derrick B., “Boston: A City on a Hill;” and Sam Bass Warner, “Philadelphia: The Private City.” In: American Urban History: An Interpretive Reader with Commentaries, Third Edition, edited by Alexander B. Callow (New York: Oxford University, 1982): 37-63.
*Winthrop, John. “A Modell of Christian Charity” (A City on the Hill). “The City upon a Hill” by John Winthrop: what is it about?” Two pages. https://thehistoricpresent.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/the-city-upon-a-hill-and-puritan-hubris
Session Eight: Industrialization in 19th Century England [86 pages]
*Dickens, Charles. The Frozen Out Poor Law (The Elizabethan Poor Laws). From: All The Year Round (Feb 16: 1861): 446-449. Scroll down to pages 446 to page 449. https://books.google.com/books?id=NNcNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA446&lpg=PA446&dq=The+Frozen+Out+Poor+Law&source=bl&ots=i1eIFi-B55&sig=pSG9p7mv2tR0Bs9_Q6N8btDLHow&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAGoVChMI0sSLhrK7xwIVTFQ-Ch0WVABT#v=onepage&q=The%20Frozen%20Out%20Poor%20Law&f=false
*Engels, Frederick. “The Great Towns.” From: The Condition of Working Class England, 1844. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999): 36-86.
*Diniejko, Andrzeij. “Charles Dickens as Social Commentator and Critic.” The Victorian Web. Februrary 7, 2012). Downloaded July 17, 2015. (7 pages). http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/diniejko.html
*Marx, Karl. “The Paris Commune and the Future of Socialism, 1870-1882.” In: The Portable Karl Marx. Edited by Eugene Kamenka (New York, Penguin Books, 1983): 506-532.
Session Nine: Sociologists and the City: German and Chicago Schools and Beyond [57 pages].
*Burgess, Ernest W. “Growth of The City.” From: The Basic Writings of Ernest W. Burgess. Edited by Donald J. Bogue (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1974): 93-106.
Domingues, Jose Mauricio. “The City: Rationalization and Freedom in Max Weber, Philosophy and Social Criticism. Sage Publications. 26 Number 4 (2000): 107-126.
Kleniewski, Nancy, and Alexander R. Thomas. “Theoretical Perspectives on the City.” From: Cities, Change and Conflict: A Political Economy of Urban Life. (Wadsworth, 2010): 21-40. Though not required, for those new to the study of urban sociology, this is good overview.
*Merton, Robert K. “Functions of a Political Machine.” From: Social Theory and Social Structure (Free Press, 1957): Scroll down to READ ONLY pages 65-75.
*Simmel, Georg. “The Metropolis and Mental Life.” From. Georg Simmel. On Individuality and Social Forms. Edited with an introduction by Donald N. Levine (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971): 324-339.
Weber, Max. “On The City.” From: Richard Sennett. Editor. Classic Essays on the Culture of Cities (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1969): 23-46. Reprinted from Max Weber, The City (New York: Macmillan and Company/The Free Press, 1958).
*Wirth, Louis. “Urbanism as a Way of Life;” and “Human Ecology.” From: Classic Essays on the Sociology of Cities. Edited by Richard Sennett (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1969): 143-164; 170- 179.
Session Ten: Chicago and Industrialization: Development and Response. [90 pages] [Read Hall and Wilson, and one of the Stockwell article selections]
*Hall, Peter. “City of Monuments [Chicago];” and “Cities of the Permanent Underclass” [Chicago]. From: Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design Since 1880. Fourth Edition (London: Wiley Blackwell, 2014): 202- 212; 485- 519 (Chicago sections).
*Wilson, William Julius, “The Economic Plight of Inner City Blacks. From: More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (New York: W W Norton, 2009): 62-92.
Stockwell, Clinton E. “Urban Ministry in Chicago: A Historical Sketch from Winthrop’s Boston to Post Industrial Chicago.” Chicago: Center for Public Ministry, 1991 (17 pages).
Clinton Stockwell and Nancy Triezenberg Fox. “Social Work and Social Change: The Case of Chicago.” Social Work and Christianity 4 (2006): 330- 354.
Clinton Stockwell. “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Legacy of Protestant Urban Social Justice in Chicago.” Pragmatics: The Journal of Community Based Learning (Fall 1998): 6-9, 19.
https://www.academia.edu/5510634/_Standing_on_the_Shoulders_of_Giants_in_Pragmatics_Fall_1998_. (OR)
Session Eleven: The Global City: Sociological Perspectives on the City in the Global Era. [127 pages].
*Abrahamson, Mark. Global Cities (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004): 1-94.
*Castells, Manuel. “The Space of Flows,” from The Castells Reader on Cities and Social Theory. Edited by Ida Susser.” (London: Blackwell, 2002): 314-349.
Longworth, RC, ed. “On Global Cities,” Chicago Council for Global Affairs, April, 2015. http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/publication/global-cities
Renn, Aaron M. “What is a Global City?” New Geography (Nov. 12, 2012). Online Download. http://www.newgeography.com/content/003292-what-is-a-global-city
Stockwell, Clinton E. “Globalization and its Discontents.
”The Witness (November 2001). http://www.thewitness.org/archive/nov2001/stockwell.html
Stockwell, Clinton E. “Living in a Global City.” For: Association of Christians Teaching Sociology, Annual Conference, Dallas Texas (June 2003).
Session Twelve: The Sustainable City: Are Global Cities Sustainable? [126 pages].
*Abrahamson, Mark. Global Cities (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004): 95- 171.
*Castells, Manuel. “The Culture of Cities.” From: The Castells Reader on Cities and Social Theory. Edited by Ida Susser (London: Blackwell, 2002): 367-389.
*Newman, Peter and Isabella Jenkins. “Introducing Cities as Sustainable Eco Systems.” From: Cities as Sustainable Eco Systems: Principles and Practices (Island Press, 2008): 2-30.
Stockwell, Clinton E. “A View from the Margins,” A Book Review of Saskia Sassen, ‘Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy’” (Cambridge: Belknap/Harvard, 2014). From SCUPE. Online Newsletter June 26, 2014. https://www.scupe.org/a-view-from-the-margins-book-review-of-saskia-sassens-expulsions/
Session Thirteen: Urban Ministry and Civic Engagement: Faithfulness, Challenge and Expectation. [68 pages].
*Ancil, Robert. “The Economy of the Tao: Wendell Berry and Economic Health.” The Imaginative Conservative. December 30, 2012. Online.
http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2012/12/economy-of-tao-wendell-berrys-view-of.html
*Berry, Wendell. “The Two Economies.” From: Every Man An Artist: Readings in the Traditional Philosophy of Art, Edited by Brian Keeble © 2005 World Wisdom, Inc. Foreword by Seyyed Hossein Nasr All Rights Reserved. For Personal Usage Only. pp. 186- 202. Online. http://www.worldwisdom.com/public/viewpdf/default.aspx?article-title=Two_Economies_by_Wendell_Berry.pdf
*Manuel Castells. “Change the World in a Network Society.” From: Manuel Castells. Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in an Internet Age (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2012): 218-246.
*Stockwell, Clinton E. “The Church and Justice in Crisis.” From: The Urban Face of Mission, edited by Susan Baker and Manny Ortiz (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 2002): 159-174.
(Selective Bibliographic Listing)
Aristotle. The Politics
Cicero. On the Commonwealth
Fustel du Coulanges. The Ancient City
Herodotus, The Histories
Park, Robert Ezra and Ernest W. Burgess. The City
Pirenne, Henri. The Medieval City
Plato. The Republic
Sennett, Richard, ed. Classic Essays on the Culture of Cities
Sjoberg, Gideon. The Preindustrial City: Past and Present
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War
Weber, Max. The City
Wirth, Louis. Urbanism as a Way of Life
Crossan, Dominic. In Search of Paul: How Jesus’ Apostle Opposed the Roman Empire
with God’s Kingdom
Ellul, Jacques. The Meaning of the City
Frick, Frank. The City in Ancient Israel
Harrison, and Welborn. The First Urban Churches: Methodological Considerations
(SBL, 2015)
Horrel and Still. After the First Urban Christians: the Social and Scientific Study of
Pauline Christianity 25 Years Later (T and T Clark, 2009)
Koester, Helmut. Cities of Paul. Images and Interpretations
Meeks, Wayne A. The First Urban Christians
Ramsay, Sir William. The Cities of Paul
______. St. Paul: Traveler and Roman Citizen
Rieger, Joerg. Christ and Empire: From Paul to Post Colonial Times
Theissen, Gerd. Sociology of Early Palestinian Christianity
______. The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity: Paul of Corinth
Dommen, Edward and Bratt, James D. eds. John Calvin Rediscovered: The Impact of
His Social and Economic Thought.
Monter, William E. Calvin’s Geneva.
Mumford, Lewis. The City in History
Ozment, Stephen. Reformation in the Cities
Spijker, Willem van’t. Calvin: A Brief Guide to His Life and Thought.
Wallace, Ronald. Calvin, Geneva and the Reformation
Castells, Manuel. Informational Society
______. The Rise of a Network Society
______. The Power of Identity
______. Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in an Internet Age (2007).
Davis, Mike. Planet of Slums.
Harvey, David. The Condition of Post Modernity.
______. Social Justice and the City (Revised, 2009)
______. Rebel Cities, etc.
Higgs, Kerryn. Collision Course: Endless Growth on a Finite Planet
Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of the Great American City
Lefebvre, Henri. Writings on Cities
______. The Social Production of Space
Nightengale, Carl H. Segregation: a Global History of Divided Cities (2012)
Sassen, Saskia. The Global City (selections)
______. Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy
______. Cities in a World Economy (2011)
Savitch, V. Post Industrial Cities: Politics and Planning in New York, Paris and London
Campbell, Scott. Green Cities, Growing Cities
______. Sustainable Development and Social Justice
Farr, Doug. Sustainable Urbanism
Glaeser, Edward. The Triumph of Cities
Newman, Peter. Cities as Sustainable EcoSystems
Owen, David. Green Metropolis
Conn, Harvie and Manny Ortiz. Urban Ministry
Livezey, Lowell, ed. Public Religion and Urban Transformation: Faith in the City. (2007)
Ortiz, Manny and Susan Baker. eds. The Urban Face of Mission (2000).
Peters, Ronald E. Urban Ministry: An Introduction.
Census Data on one’s own city, community or parish.
Social Science statistics on urbanization, globalization, etc.
Students with diverse learning styles and needs are welcome in this course. In particular, if you have a disability/health consideration that may require accommodations, please feel free to approach me and/or Student Services as soon as possible.
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