World Religions in Greater Boston
Boston's Religious History
Well before its founding in 1630, the city of Boston has been profoundly shaped by the religious communities that call it home. While the Freedom Trail commemorates many of the city’s earliest Christian influences, including Christ Church in the City of Boston (the famed “Old North Church” of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”), the city’s religious landscape is much more diverse today. Nearly fifty Islamic centers, almost forty Hindu temples, over ninety Buddhist groups, six gurdwaras, and small but vital communities of Jains, Zoroastrians, the headquarters of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and practitioners of Afro-Caribbean and Native traditions make their home in Greater Boston.
Boston's Many Religions
About World Religions in Greater Boston
From the beginning, Boston has been at the heart of the work of the Pluralism Project. In 1990, some 25 students joined Diana Eck for a course at Harvard University on “World Religions in New England.” By then, the increasing cultural diversity of the U.S. resulting from the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 had become noteworthy, but the religious dimension of that diversity often went unexamined. Each week, the class would divide into teams to visit religious communities in the Boston area and then meet to discuss what had been learned. From Sri Lakshmi Temple, located close to the starting point of the Boston Marathon, to New England’s first mosque, established in the shadows of the cranes of Quincy’s shipyards, we began to discover and document a religious landscape being transformed before our eyes. Out of this early research, the Pluralism Project was born; soon thereafter, the first edition of World Religions in Boston: A Guide to Communities and Resources was printed. Three more editions followed, with an online version making this resource more readily updated and accessible.
Thank you to the students and staff who have contributed to this resource; we would also like to acknowledge the sustained and ongoing generosity of the religious communities of the Greater Boston area. Our sincere thanks to the countless individuals who have been our gracious hosts, learned teachers, and informed contributors. We also wish to recognize the leaders and members of interfaith organizations in Greater Boston who have provided us with both assistance and inspiration: you provide powerful examples of the value of education and engagement across the lines of difference.
In the religious landscape of Greater Boston, the only constant is change. Please email us at staff@pluralism.org with suggestions for updates and improvements.