EPISODE · Mar 10, 2026 · 1H 1M

Episode 135: The Suburbanization of American Catholicism

from The Way of Improvement Leads Home: American History, Religion, Politics, and Academic life. · host John Fea

How did the suburbs shape American Catholicism? Today's guest on the podcast is historian Stephen M. Koeth, author of Crabgrass Catholicism: How Suburbanization Transformed Faith and Politics in Postwar America. Koeth argues that postwar suburbanization revolutionized the Catholic parish, the relationship between clergy and laity, conceptions of parochial education, and Catholic participation in US politics, and thereby was a significant factor in the religious disaffiliation that only accelerated in subsequent decades. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Episode 135: The Suburbanization of American Catholicism

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