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Downtown Metropolitan Churches: Ecological Situation and Response
Author(s) -
FORM WILLIAM,
DUBROW JOSHUA
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal for the scientific study of religion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1468-5906
pISSN - 0021-8294
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-5906.2005.00286.x
Subject(s) - downtown , metropolitan area , sociology , state (computer science) , ecology , geography , archaeology , biology , algorithm , computer science
Based on three principles from theories of human ecology, this study examines the response of downtown churches in metropolitan Columbus, Ohio to a changing environment. Over 150 years, churches grew in number, stabilized, contracted sharply, and restabilized, changing increasingly from neighborhood to niche churches. Better‐funded larger and older churches survived by developing heterogeneous religious and other ties with diverse weekday populations of downtown residents, employees, shoppers, and transients. Churches closer to the city center had more opportunities to develop these relationships. Sociological factors such as theology, leadership, and external resources from the metropolis, state, and nation also played a role. The interaction of sociological and ecological frameworks on both macro and micro levels explains the response of religious organizations to specific urban environments.