In the light of present-day urbanization the paper takes a fresh look at religion in the cities of the ancient Mediterranean work. The widespread model of “polis” or “civic religion” is checked against its origins in Numa Fustel de Coulange’s La cité antique of 1864. The re-reading of this work lays open the deficit in the widespread model of coextension of political dominion and identity with religious practices and identity.
The critical review will then be extended to concepts of the relationship between city and religion in other periods and areas. Only against that backdrop a new concept of “urban religion” will be proposed.