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The Church in the Suburbs

Crabgrass Catholicism explores the effects of postwar suburbanization on American Catholic parish life and politics arguing that suburbia revolutionized the sacred space of the parish, the relationship between clergy and laity, conceptions of Catholic education, and Catholic participation in American politics.

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About the Author

Stephen M. Koeth, C.S.C. is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. He is an urban, religious, and political historian of twentieth-century America. His research focuses on U.S. Catholic involvement in postwar metropolitan development, including urban renewal projects, public housing, and suburbanization, and the effects of these interactions on Catholic faith and politics.

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Reviews

”Thoroughly researched and well analyzed, this is a smart look at a volatile period in American religious history.”

Publishers Weekly

”As a product of 'Crabgrass Catholicism' myself - since my family moved to the suburbs of St. Louis in 1954 - I found Father Koeth's history perceptive and enlightening. Yes, politics is local; yes, so is formation in faith. You'll find this work as fascinating as I did.”

Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York

”Postwar suburbanization's role in transforming American Catholicism - and indeed, America itself - has long been known. Never before has it been explored with such thoroughness and insight. Ranging from drive-in Masses to priests worried about overflowing churches and schools, Crabgrass Catholicism is both fascinating and entertaining.”

Stephen Bullivant, author of Mass Exodus: Catholic Disaffiliation in Britain and America Since Vatican II

”Stephen Koeth's Crabgrass Catholicism vividly dissects post-World War II Long Island Catholicism to explore fissures that have roiled American Catholicism ever since - divides between clergy and laity, eroding parish life, growing Catholic divisions over education, birth control, and abortion, and the emergence of conservative Catholic Republican politics - all superbly researched and deftly written. A fascinating, compelling book.”

Jon Butler, author of God in Gotham: The Miracle of Religion in Modern Manhattan