The Suburban Christian

I just got Albert Hsu's The Suburban Christian and immediately read about half of it last night.  I'm really enjoying it.  What I find fascinating is the way Hsu speaks of suburbia in much the same way some speak of the city.  Here are a couple of quotes.

Suburbia has become the context and center of millions of people's lives, and decisions and innovations made in suburbia influence the rest of society.  If Christians want to change the world, they may well do so by having a transformative Christian impact on suburbia and the people therein. (27-28)

While an individual suburb might not be a microcosm of the total city, it is an essential slice of the larger metropolis that cannot be partitioned off or seen in isolation, just as a traditional local urban neighborhood is an essential component of the whole city. (29)

Comments

[Cody Walton]

I read The Suburban Christian about a month ago. Hsu's insight into suburbs provides an incredible compliment to Keller's writing about the city. I have been surprised at the absence of scholarship about suburban christianity compared with urban ministry since we plant so many churches there. I think the absence speaks loudly about the church's acceptance of the suburban life instead of engagement and transformation.

I also hope there will be a new edition with a new cover.

[Matt Adair]

Steve and Cody - I read TSC during a study leave last month. Completely agree with Cody about the dearth of scholarship regarding the contextualization of Christianity in suburbia. I thought Hsu (as well as David Goetz in Death by Suburbia) did a good job in describing the suburbs, but both leaned towards a more contemplative, mystical Foster/Willard prescription in how one lives as a Christian in suburbia. I've been doing some thinking about how reformed piety (particularly with its emphasis on the normal means of grace) serves to create a dynamic counterculture within suburbia.

[nate]

looks quite interesting. i'm waiting for someone to write a book called "The Rural Christian- Ministering Further Than 200 miles From the Nearest Wal-Mart".

[Alan Cross]

Nate,

Can you possibly ever be further than 200 miles from a Wal-Mart? Maybe in some type of parallel universe or something . . .

Steve,

Thanks for pointing us to this. This is the book I've been waiting for. Now, if we could just have one on ministering in the suburban South. Now, that would be interesting!

[nate]

alan,

our closest wal-mart is 110 miles away. so we are nearly a parallel universe, but not quite. it's called humboldt county, in northern california.

[Matt]

I am in complete agreement on the lack of scholarship....this reality is what motivated me to write a DMiss dissertation on the topic. The challenges have been looking for principles within the work of Keller and others that are translatable whether the context is urban or suburban. Then, what are the characteristics that are unique to suburbia that all of these urban missiologists haven't uncovered. Sometime within the next three years when it is all finished I will have to let you guys know....

[stew]

I just read Connecting Church by Frazee and he really nails a lot of what the root causes of the problems in suburbia - isolationism, consumerism and individualism.

i know, I'm like the last guy on the planet to read that book... I'm sure you all have read it. it's got great insights into the remedies of the suburban ills...

[Steve McCoy]

Hsu quotes Frazee too. Good stuff.

[J.Gray]

So, "suburb is bad, urban is good"?

Is that what some of you are saying?

(Honest question.)

[Steve McCoy]

JG, who said or implied that?

[Cody Walton]

Matt I will look forward to the work. I think also in the Bible Belt maybe we should start working on a theology of the churched lost.

[billmelone]

Sorry that I haven't read the book and have a question, but how does Hsu back up the statement "decisions and innovations made in suburbia influence the rest of society"? Business decisions? Political? I never really saw suburbia as anything other than equivalent with consumption. But I wonder about the question of influence--I'm not sure that that is what really matters. Being in and around the city, I see a lot of the same idolatry/consumption/meness in the city as the suburbs. I guess I wonder where the book (and other research mentioned in the comments) goes--you posted a couple quotes but is the central thesis in those quotes? Like, does he have analysis/diagnosis or is it basically, 'we have to go to the suburbs'? IMonks american idolatry series was one of the better things i've seen on urban/suburban even though it wasn't about that--to me, the bigger issue isn't urban/suburban but american idolatry as a whole.

[Jason]

There is more $$ in the burbs, thats why you see the influence of the burbs and the cities