July 2, 2025

The Suburbanizing of American Evangelicalism

“You are what you eat,” say those who emphasize good nutrition. “You are what you love,” say Christians—most notably philosopher James K. A. Smith in his book of that name—who emphasize Christianizing our desires and affections as well as our thoughts.

I don’t think Brian Miller, a Wheaton College sociology professor, would wish to add “You are where you live” to that collection of proverbs. It’s far too simplistic to ascribe that level of deterministic influence to our local communities and cultures. Yet those communities and cultures clearly leave an imprint. If, as Miller observes, American evangelicals tend to build their homes and institutions in suburban environments, then it stands to reason that their values and outlooks might come to resemble those of their neighbors.

Miller spells out his argument in a new study, Sanctifying Suburbia: How the Suburbs Became the Promised Land for American Evangelicals. Brandon O’Brien, a writer working for Redeemer City to City, reviewed the book for CT.

“Miller profiles three suburbs and one smaller city where evangelicals and evangelical institutions are unusually prominent. These communities suburbanized in different decades and under different conditions. Two had strong evangelical identities from the beginning, while the others became evangelical hot spots more recently. Taken together, the four locations host several thousand evangelical nonprofit organizations. Consequently, they are positioned to exert an outsized influence on evangelicalism everywhere.

“The implications of the data become all the more fascinating when Miller discusses ‘evangelical cultural toolkits.’ In sociology, the toolkit concept is one way to describe how culture affects human behavior. Rather than supply a set of values, culture provides a repertoire of behaviors (or tools) from which individuals choose different courses of action.

“People who want to see changes in society have different cultural tools at their disposal. They might seek to persuade others in the context of interpersonal relationships, or they might organize to reform laws and public policies. Culture affects when each tool is considered appropriate. Historically, evangelicals have reached for interpersonal relationships to address racial injustice while favoring legislative action to resist same-sex marriage. (These are my examples, not Miller’s.)

“Miller’s point is that the evangelical cultural toolkit appears to have been calibrated by patterns, experiences, and commitments common to suburban life. He’s careful to avoid claiming a direct, causal relationship between suburban norms and prevailing traits among evangelicals. But he makes a compelling case for drawing arrows of motive, means, and opportunity.”

The Three Floors of Ecclesiastes

By some measures, Ecclesiastes might be the bleakest book in Scripture (though Lamentations and Job might raise a protest with the judges). But God hasn’t spoken this word to leave us mired in despair. If we’re left in despair about the futility of finding lasting joy by pursuing earthly pleasure, that’s by design. Because it clears our eyes to see that lasting joy is something we’ll only find elsewhere.

Author and pastor Bobby Jamieson walks readers through the lessons of this enigmatic book in Everything Is Never Enough: Ecclesiastes’ Surprising Path to Resilient Happiness. Theologian Ronni Kurtz, who recently moved from Cedarville University to Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, reviewed the book for the July/August issue of CT, which went live this morning. Here’s a sample:

“To understand Ecclesiastes, Jamieson argues, we should envision a three-story building. On each floor, we confront different questions, emphases, and views of the world. Everything Is Never Enough follows this three-story model, with the first 11 chapters examining the first floor, the next eight heading upstairs, and two climactic chapters giving the view from the top.

“In Jamieson’s telling, Qohelet—the mysterious figure commonly credited with writing Ecclesiastes—remains on the first floor for most of the book. Here, his ‘far-seeing eyes take in the whole of human life,’ as he ‘weighs the merits of work, sex, food and drink, wealth, power, and many other possible sources of meaning and satisfaction. He finds them all wanting and pronounces them all “absurd.”

“Qohelet only ascends to the second floor on a handful of occasions—'seven, to be precise,’ as Jamieson argues. Here, he ‘surveys the same territory, considering many of the same subjects.’ Yet ‘he sees something astonishingly different.’ Certain things that had struck him as absurd on the ground floor are now revealed to be gifts worth savoring.

“The third floor is visited even more rarely. As Jamieson writes, Qohelet ‘comes here only a few times, gives no warning before he does, and never stays long.’ After venturing upstairs, he returns with ‘two crucial reference points: one, fear God because, two, he is going to judge all that you do and all that everyone ever does.’

“Just as a three-story building remains intact even as the individual stories have different layouts and afford different views, the perspectives of Ecclesiastes cohere despite the outward tension between them. We learn something about the inherent limits of earthly life. We learn something about the gifts of contentment—and even the joy—we can experience within those limits. What holds it all together is the importance of fearing God, who reveals himself as the sole source of durable satisfaction through the limits and gifts alike.”

Matt Reynolds

Senior Editor, Books

don't miss

Evangelicals Live in the Suburbs. Do the Suburbs Live in Us?
My children were exposed as preschoolers to things I was shielded from into adulthood. My oldest, for example, was already familiar with the smell of marijuana by age 5. On…

We Want What the World Can’t Give
As a writer, David Foster Wallace is probably best known for his gargantuan novel Infinite Jest—the copiously footnoted book many fans have started but struggled to finish. But I first…

PAID CONTENT FOR FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY
Health and Hope for a Flourishing Future
Right now, more than a third of the world cannot afford and access sufficient nutritious food. The newly released 2025 Global Report on Food Crises found that 294 million people…
Read more

in the magazine

It's easy to live in a state of panic, anxiety, and fear, from the pinging of our phones to politics and the state of the church. In this issue, we acknowledge panic and point to Christian ways through it. Russell Moore brings us to the place of panic in Caesarea Philippi with Jesus and Peter. Laura M. Fabrycky writes about American inclinations toward hero-making. Mindy Belz reports on the restorative work of Dr. Denis Mukwege for rape victims in Congo. We’re also thrilled to give you a first look at the Global Flourishing Study, a multiyear research project about what makes a flourishing life across the globe. While panic may be profitable or natural, we have a sure and steady anchor for our souls in Jesus.

VIEW FULL ISSUE

SUBSCRIBE NOW

The Suburbanizing of American Evangelicalism

The Three Floors of Ecclesiastes

Evangelicals Live in the Suburbs. Do the Suburbs Live in Us?

We Want What the World Can’t Give

Health and Hope for a Flourishing Future