Can the urban church survive? Are churches relevant to public life? These two questions drive John Atherton's thoughtful, sometimes searing and ultimately optimistic study. In secular Britain and Western Europe, churches seem increasingly marginalized from the processes of public discussion, decision-making and policy formation. That marginalization mirrors their marginalization in people's lives, which is most acute in parts of the city populated by those excluded from the main streams of a society's common or public life. It is John Atherton's genius to bring these two issues together: the...