Making Urban Religious Spaces

Abstract

Many German cities are shaped by traditional Christian church architecture that contributed to structuring urban environments. Secularization and religious diversifijication have caused a pluralization of religious cityscapes. In this article, the authors argue that discourses about religious plurality and the places of new and smaller religious communities materialize in urban built environments. Instead of focusing on cases that receive much public and scholarly attention, this article presents an analysis of a Pentecostal Christian congregation in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, which was debated mostly on a local level. The authors outline the church’s history and public debate about it and focus our analysis on the community’s architectural visibility and position in the urban context. Our study of the church’s locations and designs shows how its position and architecture add a level of complexity to the media discourse.