THE URBAN RURAL DICHOTOMY IN EUROPEAN AND NORTH-AMERICAN RELIGIOUS HISTORY FROM THE 18TH-CENTURY TO THE 20TH-CENTURY/

Under the ancien regime, differences between the religious lives of ci ties and rural areas were relatively small, and in the contemporary pe riod these differences are again rapidly diminishing. But in the perio d from about 1789 to 1960, the contrast between ''rural piety'' and '' urban irreligion'' became a commonplace. There were real religious dif ferences between town and countryside, though contemporaries (and hist orians) often exaggerated and oversimplified the differences. These we re due to differences in demography, social structure, the provision o f religious resources, and to some extent culture. Claims concerning a distinctive ''urban mentality'' or ''urban way of life'' are, however , questionable.