Full Description
The suburbs are home to the majority of Americans, including millions of evangelical Christians and thousands of evangelical congregations and organizations. And while American evangelicals are a potent force in society and politics, their connection to and embrace of the suburbs are rarely examined. How did white evangelicals come to see the suburbs as a promised land, home to the evangelical good life and to dense concentrations and networks of evangelical residents, churches big and small, and nonprofit organizations? This book systematically assesses how evangelicals became intertwined with the suburbs and what this means for evangelical life.
Brian Miller shows how evangelical views of race and ethnicity, social class, and gender led to anti-urban sentiment, white flight, and the pursuit of racial exclusivity-all of which has led evangelicals to make the suburbs their physical and spiritual home. At the same time, clusters of evangelical organizations were planting themselves in the suburbs, drawing evangelicals out of the cities. Through sociological analysis, case studies of multiple communities with clusters of evangelical residents, and examinations of evangelical culture, Miller shows that in order to fully understand American evangelicals we must take a deeper look at how evangelicals embraced suburbs and how the suburbs shaped them.
Contents
CONTENTS
Preface: Evangelicals in Jesusland
Chapter 1: Evangelicals, Suburbs, and the American Dream
Chapter 2: Evangelicals and Suburbs: A History
Chapter 3: Evangelicals and Other Protestant Groups Leave Chicago for the Suburbs
Chapter 4: United Evangelicals Across (Parts of) America
Chapter 5: The Holy Suburb of Wheaton, Illinois
Chapter 6: "Evangelical Meccas": Clusters of Evangelical Organizations in Suburbs and Cities
Chapter 7: Where Evangelicals and other American Religious Traditions Live, 1972-2016
Chapter 8: Evangelical Toolkits, Theology, and Suburbs
Conclusion
