This book wrestles with the question of how the church can thrive in such a diverse urban
environment as Berlin and contribute to the flourishing of a pluralistic society. The study
includes embedded experience on the streets and crosses the disciplinary divides of Sociology &
Theology. The main claim of the book is that the church is only able to thrive when it is
willing to descend into the messy urban reality and encounter the stranger. However the church
can only do so by glimpsing God's glory in worship. Living pluralism emerges from the
grassroots. The church can only become a gift to society paradoxically: By not setting itself
at the center but rather by gathering around the triune God and abandoning its desire for
power and relevance the church will unintentionally provide a fertile soil within which
resilient pluralism will grow. Oleg Dik is professor for urban Theology & Sociology at the
Evangelische Hochschule TABOR Marburg TSB Theologisches Studienzentrum Berlin and lectures
occasionally at Humboldt University Berlin in Sociology of Religion.
