The Scottish Centre for Theology and Ministry in an Urban World

Today more than half the world’s population live in cities and this proportion is rapidly growing. Urban values and culture make their impact felt far more widely than just in the inner cities and shanty towns of our world. Christian ministry almost everywhere on earth is now done in word shaped by urban values.

The rapid growth of the city, and the values represented therein, has made it a complex place, a place often viewed with suspicion and fear, harbouring poverty, mistrust, violence and isolation; and yet the city is also a place which offers scope for creativity, for flourishing communities, for reconciliation and for genuine friendships.

Christians working in urban contexts have the potential both to bring God’s light into the dark parts of the city, and to see where the light of God is already present in places of hope in the city.

Neopolis, The Scottish Centre for Theology and Ministry in an Urban World is a resource which provides training, theological reflection and research in issues relating to ministry in an urban world.

The aims of the centre are:

• To highlight the particular dynamisms of urban mission in diverse cultures around the world.
• To encourage both theological and practice-related development that particularly aims at effecting better ministry in the world’s cities.
• To publish materials that will challenge and encourage both urban theologians and urban practitioners.
• To pursue a cross-disciplinary approach that draws upon the social sciences, history, medicine and the creative arts, as well as theology in the interest of urban development.