The Urban/rural Dichotomy in European and North American Religious History from the Eighteenth Century to the Twentieth

Abstract

Under the ancien regime, differences between the religious lives of cities and rural areas were relatively small, and in the contemporary period these differences are again rapidly diminishing. But in the period from about 1789 to 1960, the contrast between “rural piety” and “urban irreligion” became a commonplace. There were real religious differences between town and countryside, though contemporaries (and historians) often exaggerated and oversimplified the differences. These were due to differences in demography, social structure, the provision of religious resources, and to some extent culture. Claims concerning a distinctive “urban mentality” or “urban way of life” are, however, questionable.