What Makes for a Better City? Eucharistic Liturgy as Social Critique

Abstract

Contextualized in the city of Edinburgh, this paper deploys components of a liturgy of the Eucharist as a way of opening alternative criteria for the development of any city than those confined to an economic paradigm. It reviews the theological literature on urban planning, with reference to the spatial turn that recognizes the epiphanic potential of the built environment. Addressed to Christian professionals in urban planning, campaigners, and faith educators, the article is an exercise in public liturgical practical theology. It explores how a city might express its humility in light of its failures and engage with fears of the often already-marginalized. It considers how a city wrestles with multiple versions of the Common Good, and with resisting the marketization of social relationships. Corporeality and participation raise questions of social justice.