The new religious image of urban America

In The New Religious Image of Urban America, Zepp adopts a novel way of looking at things around him - circles, crosses, squares, trees, fountains, flags, stone monuments - and how these objects are symbols of human community. In the same way, he relates the architecture of shopping malls - including fountains, streams, and trees - to the archetypes of human and religious traditions. Zepp asserts that for many people the shopping mall represents a substitute for ancient sacred centers.

If religion, schools, and families (our three major institutions) fail us, we will seek other spaces to fulfill basic human needs. It is not accidental, he argues, that malls contain the same structures, objects, and symbols that give ancient centers their rich human meaning.

The New Religious Image of Urban America: The Shopping Mall as Ceremonial Center is the only book that deals with the religious dimension of malls. First published in 1986, it has been updated and expanded to include a new chapter on airports and ballparks as forms of the mall, and a critical response.