The Project on Religion and Urban Culture 2.0 (RUC 2.0), conducted from 2020 through 2022, seeks to understand how Indianapolis congregations are responding to the dramatic changes we all have experienced over the past several years. Among these challenges are growing economic inequality, awareness of systemic racism, immigration, political polarization, and the pandemic, among many others. Although national surveys reveal that religious affiliation continues to decline in the United States and, by implication, in Indianapolis, RUC 2.0 uses observations and interviews to examine congregational resiliency and creativity. How are congregations responding to change, and especially what are the creative responses that are worthy of notice? This project includes two newsletters, Research Notes and Responsive Congregations. Subscribe to them here.
RUC 1 (1996 – 2002) worked through community-based partnerships, cultivating public inquiry and civic conversation about the role of religion in this exemplar metropolitan community. This nine-year study of religion and community in Indianapolis, funded by grants from Lilly Endowment, Inc., resulted in a vast amount of information made available to the community in many formats, including four newsletters (Clergy Notes, Religion & Community, Research Notes, and Responsive Communities), a scholarly book series, two internationally distributed video series, and more.
Please note that the links in some of the following periodicals may be broken due to time frame of original publication date, so you may need to do further research and/or directly contact the publication author/editor noted on last page rather than The Polis Center.
RUC 2.0
Research Notes provides monthly updates on what the project is learning about the themes explored in the RUC 2.0 Project.
Responsive Congregations tells more in-depth stories of the creative initiatives to address our society’s challenges.
RUC 1.0
A monthly newsletter to provide information about issues that are of interest to clergy regarding their communities and urban life.
A regular periodical that relates general findings of the Project on Religion and Urban Culture and provides updates regarding the project.
Provides a forum for discussing scholarly issues as part of the project. Intended for people with an interest in substantive issues about the role of religion in the urban culture of Indianapolis and other American cities.
Intended to present new ideas for ministry by highlighting local, faith-based responses to important social issues and answering questions such as:
- Why is this particular ministry needed in our community?
- Why would our congregation want to be involved?
- What resources are necessary to sustain such a ministry?
- What do we know—or not know—about ourselves and our community that would help us make a decision?