Subdivided By Faith? An Historical Account of Evangelicals and the City

In their landmark study, Divided by Faith, Michael Emerson and Christian Smith articulated the ways in which evangelical spirituality and practice actually contributed to the racialization and segregation of American culture—the very antithesis of the picture of the redeemed community “from every nation, tribe, people and language” (Rev. 7:9).1 We want to consider whether evangelicals tend to exhibit an anti-urban bias that contributes to a negative view of urban life and contributes to the growth of suburban and exurban social arrangements in the United States. (And like the case studied by Emerson and Smith, if such evangelical antipathy exists, these sensibilities seem to be in contrast to the biblical eschatological hope that locates redemption in a city [Rev. 21:2].) We believe that such an antiurban bias accords neither with an integral Christian theoretical framework, nor with the findings of social research—which increasingly points to the corrosive effects of the suburbanization of U.S. populations, and also indicates the unique possibilities for community in urban settings. We believe that religion is a significant but heretofore overlooked cultural factor in discussions of anti-urban bias (and any relation between anti-urban bias and consequent suburban expansion).2 But if we consider the role of culture, and religion in particular, as factors that influence the built environment, new sets of questions arise. Why/how does religious belief influence anti-urban bias in America? Does it mitigate or intensify it? In particular, we believe that it is important that urban studies consider the increasingly influential role of evangelicals in the shape