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Chicago

Also Known As Chicagoan
United States

Chicago's place in religious history rests largely on the World's Parliament of Religions, held there in 1893 alongside the World's Columbian Exposition. It was the first large gathering to put representatives of many traditions on a single platform, and the occasion of Vivekananda's introduction of Vedanta to an American audience. A centenary parliament in the same city in 1993 produced the declaration Towards a Global Ethic, and the Newberry Library in Chicago holds manuscript collections important to the study of religion.

Facts
Origins
Founded
Incorporated in 1837 at the portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi system, and rebuilt after the fire of 1871 1
Origin of the Name
Derives from a Miami-Illinois word for a wild garlic or onion that grew abundantly along the river, first recorded in French explorer accounts of the late seventeenth century. 1
Attributions
Tradition
The Catholic and Lutheran churches of its European immigration; the Black Protestant churches of the Great Migration, in which gospel music took its modern form; the Nation of Islam, headquartered in the city; and the World's Parliament of Religions, held there in 1893 2
Traditions
Sacred and Liturgical Languages
English, with Latin, German, Polish and Church Slavonic long used in the immigrant congregations 3
Learn More
The World's Parliament of Religions, 1893

The Parliament sat for seventeen days in September 1893, in the newly built hall on the lakefront that is now the Art Institute, as one of the congresses attached to the World's Columbian Exposition. Nothing on that scale had been attempted: delegates of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Shinto, Islam, Judaism and a long list of Christian bodies addressed the same audience from the same platform, and the proceedings were published and read far beyond the city.

Two things are usually remembered about it. The first is the reception of Vivekananda, a young Bengali monk with no delegation behind him, whose opening address was received with an ovation and who spent the following years lecturing across the United States, founding the first Vedanta societies in the West. The second is that the meeting introduced an American public to Buddhism through speakers including Anagarika Dharmapala of Ceylon and the Rinzai abbot Soyen Shaku, whose connection to Chicago publishing later carried D. T. Suzuki to the United States.

The Parliament's frame was less neutral than its billing. It was organised by liberal Protestants, opened and closed with Christian prayer, and its chairman assumed that comparison would demonstrate the superiority of his own tradition. The Archbishop of Canterbury declined to take part on the ground that Christianity is not one religion among many. Delegates from Asia used the platform to answer missionary accounts of their traditions directly, which is a large part of why the event mattered.

A City of Foundings, from Gospel Music to the Nation of Islam

Chicago's religious importance did not end with the Parliament. The Great Migration brought several hundred thousand African Americans north between the wars, and their churches remade the city's religious life. Thomas A. Dorsey, a blues pianist who turned to sacred music, worked from Pilgrim Baptist Church and, with singers including Mahalia Jackson, established gospel as a composed and published form rather than only a congregational one; the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses was founded in the city in 1933. Storefront congregations multiplied alongside the large churches, and the tension between the two shaped what black Protestant worship in northern cities became.

The same migration carried new movements. Elijah Muhammad led the Nation of Islam from Chicago from the 1930s, and its headquarters and principal mosque remain there, so the organisation's doctrinal and institutional centre has always been this city rather than New York, where its best known minister worked.

Other traditions built their American centres nearby. The Bahai House of Worship at Wilmette on the lakeshore north of the city, begun in 1920 and dedicated in 1953, was the first in the western hemisphere and is still the faith's principal temple in North America. Moody Bible Institute, founded in 1886, became a central institution of American evangelicalism and of the fundamentalist movement that grew out of it. The centenary Parliament of 1993, held in the same city, issued the declaration Towards a Global Ethic drafted by the theologian Hans Kung.

Connections

Associated With

This source names Chicago directly: "pastored Southside Alliance Church in Chicago from 1928 to 1959, served on the CMA Board of Managers from 1941, was elected the denomination's vice president in 1946 and 1949, edited its own..."

Source A. W. Tozer (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Chicago directly: "Made at the Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago in 1944 by Glenn Seaborg and colleagues and, with curium, first disclosed to the public in November 1945 not in a journal but on a children's radio..."

Source Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the ElementsJohn Emsley

This source names Chicago directly: "Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois."

Source Ancient Faith Radio (Wikipedia)

This source names Chicago directly: "and Hudson with the Art Institute of Chicago, 1998, is a scholarly edited volume, produced to accompany a museum exhibition."

Source Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown PastRichard F. Townsend (ed.)

This source names Chicago directly: "George Kheiralla's 1894 move to Chicago, where interest generated by the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions gave his teaching classes their first significant American audience; not the right..."

Source Baha'i Faith In The United States (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Chicago directly: "People, published by University of Chicago Press in 1985, is a peer reviewed ethnographic and historical study of Zionist church practice among the Tshidi of South Africa, including the ritual..."

Source Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance: The Culture and History of a South African PeopleJean Comaroff

This source names Chicago directly: "World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where Soyen Shaku and Anagarika Dharmapala presented Buddhism to a wide non-Asian audience for the first time; not the right source for a contested claim..."

Source Buddhism in the United States (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Chicago directly: "World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where the Rinzai Zen teacher Soyen Shaku and the Sri Lankan revivalist Anagarika Dharmapala presented the tradition to a wide non-Asian audience for the..."

Source Buddhism in the United States (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Chicago directly: "of the World's Religions convened in Chicago, one hundred and thirty years after its first gathering there in 1893, drawing more than seven thousand attendees from over ninety five countries and..."

Source Our Attendance at the 2023 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago (Cao Dai)

This source names Chicago directly: "by Janet Lloyd, University of Chicago Press, 1991, English translation first published by The Harvester Press in 1978, French original by Flammarion in 1974, is the founding study of metis, or..."

Source Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture and SocietyMarcel Detienne and Jean-Pierre Vernant, translated by Janet Lloyd

This source names Chicago directly: "by Wole Soyinka, The Goodman Theatre, Chicago, October 5-November 11, 1979." It documents an exact production run and confirms Soyinka both wrote and directed this Chicago staging himself."

Source Dartmouth College, Rauner Library: Goodman Theatre Death and the King's Horseman Study Guide (1979)the holders' own account

This source names Chicago directly: "distributed by the University of Chicago Press, is an academic state formation history of medieval Norway across that period, covering Olaf Haraldsson's death at Stiklestad, his canonisation, and..."

Source From Viking Stronghold to Christian Kingdom: State Formation in Norway, c. 900-1350Sverre Bagge

This source names Chicago directly: "musician, and this University of Chicago Press book is his standard scholarly ethnomusicological study of Central Javanese gamelan, including the Sekaten ensembles maintained by the royal courts of..."

Source Gamelan: Cultural Interaction and Musical Development in Central JavaSumarsam

This source names Chicago directly: "Dai session held 14 August 2023 at its Chicago gathering, presented by Hoang Le, Tham Le and Vincent Thi."

Source How Cao Dai Faith Engages Youths to Spiritual and Service Lives (Parliament of the World's Religions)

This source names Chicago directly: "volume 24, by the University of Chicago Press in 1985, is an anthropological study of Greek Orthodox icon devotion built on Kenna's own fieldwork on a small Greek island and among island migrants in..."

Source Icons in Theory and Practice: An Orthodox Christian ExampleMargaret E. Kenna

This source names Chicago directly: "the main body of Mormons west to Utah. Chicago grew into one of the country's most religiously diverse cities through immigration, home to a large Catholic archdiocese built on Polish, Irish and..."

Source The Oxford Handbook of MormonismTerryl L. Givens and Philip L. Barlow (eds.)

This source names Chicago directly: "Given to the Art Institute of Chicago by the Alsdorf Foundation and held today in its Arts of Asia department, accession 1996.699."

Source Jaina Tirthankara Chandraprabha Standing in Meditation, Art Institute of Chicago (1996.699)

This source names Chicago directly: "history from the University of Chicago Press, is a full length academic history of Khama III, Bathoen and Sebele's 1895 deputation to London against Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company, by a..."

Source King Khama, Emperor Joe, and the Great White Queen: Victorian Britain through African EyesNeil Parsons

This source names Chicago directly: "Held today by the Art Institute of Chicago, a gift of Mrs."

Source King Yu Moving a Mountain to Control the Floods, Art Institute of Chicago

This source names Chicago directly: "organized on April 26, 1847, in Chicago, when twelve pastors representing fourteen congregations across Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, New York, Ohio and Wisconsin signed a constitution founding the..."

Source About The LCMS (LCMS.org)

This source names Chicago directly: "meeting on 27 September 1920 in Chicago."

Source Mennonite Central Committee (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Chicago directly: "published by the University of Chicago Press in 1996, is a scholarly study of messianic currents within modern Zionism and the religious radicalism they have sometimes produced."

Source Messianism, Zionism, and Jewish Religious RadicalismAviezer Ravitzky

This source names Chicago directly: "station, WMBI, went on the air from Chicago on July 28, 1926, as the broadcast voice of the Moody Bible Institute, founded by engineer H."

Source 100 Years of Moody Radio Proclaiming the Unstoppable Gospel (Moody Radio)

This source names Chicago directly: "two years later, toward the same 1893 Chicago Parliament of Religions this atlas's own separate United States arrival event already records him presenting at."

Source Henry Steel Olcott (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Chicago directly: "held 14 to 18 August 2023 in Chicago."

Source Our Attendance at the 2023 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago (Cao Dai)

This source names Chicago directly: "distributed by the University of Chicago Press, 2002, is a multidisciplinary academic collection, spanning sociology, anthropology, political science, religious studies and theology, on John Paul..."

Source Papal Overtures in a Cuban Key: The Pope's Visit and Civic Space for Cuban ReligionAntonio M. Stevens-Arroyo (ed.)

This source names Chicago directly: "of religion and culture in Black Chicago from 1915 to 1952, drawing on church, migration and cultural records from the period."

Source Passionately Human, No Less Divine: Religion and Culture in Black Chicago, 1915-1952Wallace D. Best

This source names Chicago directly: "As a scholarly translation from University of Chicago Press with critical introduction, it gives reliable access to the text's actual content and its transmission history."

Source Physiologus: A Medieval Book of Nature Lore, English translationMichael J. Curley (trans.)

This source names Chicago directly: "and published by the University of Chicago Press in 1993, is a scholarly study of the third century Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus by one of the twentieth century's leading historians of ancient..."

Source Plotinus, or The Simplicity of VisionPierre Hadot (trans. Michael Chase)

This source names Chicago directly: "Held today by the Art Institute of Chicago."

Source Pope John Paul II, Art Institute of Chicago (Yousuf Karsh, 1979)

This source names Chicago directly: "online exhibit, Portrait of Black Chicago, captioning a March 1974 photograph of Nation of Islam Fruit of Islam bodyguards with an uncited description of the group's holdings as a '75 million dollar..."

Source Portrait of Black Chicago, Part 3: The Fruit of Islam Caption (National Archives and Records Administration)

This source names Chicago directly: "is a scholar of Buddhist studies, and this University of Chicago Press book is his academic critique of how Tibetan Buddhism has been imagined and misrepresented in the West, including its close..."

Source Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the WestDonald S. Lopez Jr.

This source names Chicago directly: "priest, godhi of Thor's Oak Kindred in Chicago."

Source Ragnarok and Odin, Death and Memory (Seigfried, Norse Mythology Blog)Dr. Karl E. H. Seigfried

This source names Chicago directly: "book, published by University of Chicago Press, examines BaKongo religion in the lower Zaire region, including cosmology, ritual specialists and the movements of religious renewal that periodically..."

Source Religion and Society in Central Africa: The BaKongo of Lower ZaireWyatt MacGaffey

This source names Chicago directly: "Held today by the Art Institute of Chicago."

Source Reverend Jonathan Edwards, Art Institute of Chicago (Abner Reed, 1808)

This source names Chicago directly: "published by the University of Chicago Press in 1992, is an anthropological study of capoeira built on Lewis's own fieldwork training within the Brazilian martial art and game, examining how its..."

Source Ring of Liberation: Deceptive Discourse in Brazilian CapoeiraJ. Lowell Lewis

This source names Chicago directly: "Line, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2011, is a scholarly study tracing how the Jordan River functions across the Hebrew Bible and later tradition as a symbolic boundary, separating..."

Source River Jordan: The Mythology of a Dividing LineRachel Havrelock

This source names Chicago directly: "Held today by the Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Asia department, under accession 1970.520."

Source Sarutahiko, No. 2, accession 1970.520 (Art Institute of Chicago)

This source names Chicago directly: "Held today by the Art Institute of Chicago under main reference number 2024.591."

Source Saturn and Rhea, Art Institute of Chicago (2024.591)

This source names Chicago directly: "for decades at the University of Chicago, explains the collection's own title in his afterword: the poems "all speak of Siva and speak to Siva," meditative, personal addresses to the god that draw..."

Source Speaking of Siva, Penguin Classics edition (Internet Archive digitized copy)A. K. Ramanujan (translator)

This source names Chicago directly: "of a major 2000 Art Institute of Chicago exhibition, written by the show's curators drawing on loaned objects from museums across China and the West."

Source Taoism and the Arts of ChinaStephen Little with Shawn Eichman

This source names Chicago directly: "of Bishops had first put forward at Chicago in 1886: the Scriptures as containing all things necessary to salvation, the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, the two sacraments Christ himself ordained, and..."

Source The Chicago-Lambeth QuadrilateralThe Lambeth Conferencethe holders' own account

This source names Chicago directly: "A seventeen-day congress held in Chicago from 11 to 27 September 1893 alongside the World's Columbian Exposition, organized by the Swedenborgian lawyer Charles Carroll Bonney and chaired by the..."

Source The World's Parliament of Religions: The East/West Encounter, Chicago, 1893Richard Hughes Seager

This source names Chicago directly: "convened at the Palmer House hotel in Chicago in 1993 by the newly formed Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions and drawing more than 8,000 participants from dozens of traditions."

Source Towards a Global Ethic: An Initial DeclarationDrafted principally by Hans Kung, endorsed by the Parliament of the World's Religions Assembly of religious and spiritual leaders

This source names Chicago directly: "book, published by University of Chicago Press, examines the Siddha traditions of medieval Indian tantric alchemy and hatha yoga, arguing that these traditions' physical and alchemical practices..."

Source The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval IndiaDavid Gordon White

This source names Chicago directly: "held its constitutional convention in Chicago in May 1943, with more than a thousand delegates from nearly fifty denominations."

Source 80 Years Ago: The Assemblies of God Was a Founding Member of the National Association of Evangelicals (Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center)

This source names Chicago directly: "on December 17, 1939, over WJJD in Chicago, a 20,000 watt station, as the radio ministry of the Christian Reformed Church, with Calvin College professor Henry Schultze as its first speaker."

Source Back to God Ministries Celebrates 75th Birthday (Christian Reformed Church)

This source names Chicago directly: "classes in New York before moving to Chicago in 1894, where the religious enthusiasm generated by the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions gave his teaching its first substantial American following."

Source Baha'i Faith In The United States (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Chicago directly: "studies, and this University of Chicago Press book is his academic history of Ledi Sayadaw, the Burmese monk whose reforms helped shape the modern vipassana meditation movement, situating that..."

Source The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi SayadawErik Braun

This source names Chicago directly: "and published by University of Chicago Press in 1984 as the English edition of his 1981 La Naissance du Purgatoire, is a landmark scholarly study by one of the twentieth century's most prominent..."

Source The Birth of PurgatoryJacques Le Goff (Arthur Goldhammer, trans.)

Showing 1 to 50 of 87 in Associated With, page 1 of 2.

Contained In

Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source
2. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source
3. The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
John Bowker (ed.), Oxford University Press, 1997View the Source
The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition
Oxford University Press, Oxford University Pressdemonym / adjectival formView the Source
The World's Parliament of Religions: The East/West Encounter, Chicago, 1893
Richard Hughes Seager, Indiana University Press, 1995
Passionately Human, No Less Divine: Religion and Culture in Black Chicago, 1915-1952
Wallace D. Best, Princeton University Press, 2005
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