New publication: Cities of Gods

Jörg Rüpke
Cities of Gods: A Global History of Religion and the City from the Ancient World to the Modern
Princeton University Press, 2026
ISBN: 9780691223735
480 pages
£35.00

In “Cities of Gods”, Jörg Rüpke offers an entirely new vision of the history of religion – one in which religion has shaped cities and cities have shaped religion. Rüpke shows how religious actions and ideas have shaped cities since urbanisation began some 6,000 years ago – and how cities have, in turn, transformed religious practices. Cities have given rise to new mass rituals that instil the idea of an all-encompassing community; priestly hierarchies, religious organisations and globalised religious traditions have followed. Urban religion, Rüpke argues, helps people in cities build a world and an identity that make living in a risky and powerful space more bearable.

Rüpke explores early processes of urbanisation in Mesopotamia and Asia, showing how people’s willingness to live differently creates urban space. In examining the dynamic relationship between urban and religious change, Rüpke considers the differences and commonalities of cities including Uruk, Jerusalem, Varanasi, Chang’an, Cairo, Lhasa and Kyoto. The construction of monuments, the embellishment and appropriation of beliefs and rituals, the inclusion of ancestors and deities in social life: each offers a different lens through which to view a history of the city that is also a history of religion. Much of what we regard as characteristic of religion and religious practices stems not from the solitary cry of a prophet or the prayer of a saint, but from an urban religion built upon the solidarity of people living in cities.

The author
Jörg Rüpke is fellow in the history of religion and codirector of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt in Germany. He is the author of many books, including most recently Religion and Its History: A Critical Inquiry; Pantheon: A New History of Roman Religion (Princeton); Religious Deviance in the Roman World: Superstition or Individuality?; and On Roman Religion: Lived Religion and the Individual in Ancient Rome.