Setting his gaze on Flushing, Queens, [Hanson] examines how the history of religious freedom and waves of immigration gave rise to a remarkable religious pluralism in that community, best known as the site of the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Combining historical and ethnographic research, he is interested in uncovering “how pluralism ‘works’ at the local level.”
City of Gods is an important and timely study in the age of Trump. As Americans debate issues surrounding immigration policies, religious expression, and national identity, it is vital that public discourse be informed by accurate and nuanced understandings of the nation’s history of engagement with the sometimes complementary—and other times conflicting—principles of religious freedom and pluralism.
City of Gods is a great addition to the pantheon of history books on New York City and is one of the first to explore the topic of racial diversity and harmony in Flushing.
...a delightful journey through American religious history and into the future, as witnessed in the streets of what the author says is the most religiously diverse community anywhere.
...this is a book that anyone with an interest in religion, immigration, intergroup relations, or urbanization will want to read.
"Minutely detailed. . . a 'case study' of the promises and drawbacks of pluralism.”
“Flushing, Queens, is surely one of the most religiously diverse places on the planet today. Scott Hanson’s study shows how it got this way. This deeply researched and thickly described account of the gods of Flushing makes an important contribution to the history of immigration after the Hart-Celler Act of 1965 and to the study of American urban religions. City of Gods is as well a timely and necessary contribution to the public debate about the nature of American civilization.”---—Robert Orsi, author of The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950
“An illuminating account of what Scott Hanson rightly calls ‘perhaps the most compelling case of religious and ethnic pluralism in the world.’ City of Gods is an important contribution to the literature on religious diversity in America, and an inspiring read for those committed to interfaith cooperation."---—Eboo Patel, Founder and President, Interfaith Youth Core
“[an] intimate portrait of lived religion. . . inspiring . . . deserves a place alongside Robert Orsi's The Madonna of 115th Street.”
“This invaluable study of America’s most religiously complex community effectively enshrines Flushing as a pioneer of American religious pluralism. Established by English immigrants—religious refugees from both Old and New England —under Dutch patronage, Flushing has offered a home to religious diversity from its seventeenth-century beginnings. Scott Hanson’s smart, lovingly researched account illuminates how connections between the local and the international transformed a small town into a globalized urban gateway to America’s religious future, while drawing inspiration from its distinctive colonial past.”---—Evan Haefeli, author of New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty
“Through this narrative, the reader gets close to battlers for religious freedom, will see immigration not as an issue but in a story of people, and come to regard pluralism anew, not as a philosophical analysis of diversity but instead as the perplexing and yet promising story of how people of different faiths share some features of a common life.”---—Martin E. Marty, from the Foreword
“City of Gods breathes fresh life into the religious pluralism tradition of theorizing and study. In this compelling—often lyrical—book, R. Scott Hanson sheds new light on urban religious history and offers vibrant, ethnographically grounded insight into the promise and challenges of life in this remarkably diverse religious environment. In our age of inter-religious conflict and immigration controversy, this work is very timely—but City of Gods is also a landmark to which people concerned with religious pluralism will return for many years to come.”---—Omar M. McRoberts, author of Streets of Glory, Church and Community in a Black Urban Neighborhood
