Commentary: From Faith in the City to Faithful Cities: The `Third Way', the Church of England and Urban Regeneration

Abstract

In 1984, the Church of England published a critique of urban life, Faith in the City, which Thatcher's government accused of `Marxism'. A new Church of England report, Faithful Cities, marks its 20th anniversary. This article asks how the challenges of the earlier report have been inherited, arguing that the new one accepts the logic of the `Third Way', problematising the city as a place of untapped `citizens', waiting to be transformed by the agency of civil society partners including faith communities. In doing so, it fails to criticise the political consensus of markets and social justice. The effectiveness of the Church of England in cities should now be understood, therefore, as predominantly associated with meso-level community interventions and not at the macro level where a critique of the political could occur. The article asks whether this also sets an example for the stances of churches elsewhere.