Finding Holy in the Suburbs: Living Faithfully in the Land of Too Much - Paperback

by Ashley Hales (Author), Emily P. Freeman (Foreword by)

Suburban life--including tract homes, strip malls, commuter culture--shapes our desires. More than half of Americans live in the suburbs. Ashley Hales writes that for many Christians, however: "The suburbs are ignored ('Your place doesn't matter, we're all going to heaven anyway'), denigrated and demeaned ('You're selfish if you live in a suburb; you only care about your own safety and advancement'), or seen as a cop-out from a faithful Christian life ('If you really loved God, you'd move to Africa or work in an impoverished area'). In everything from books to Hollywood jokes, the suburbs aren't supposed to be good for our souls." What does it look like to live a full Christian life in the suburbs? Suburbs reflect our good, God-given desire for a place to call home. And suburbs also reflect our own brokenness. This book is an invitation to look deeply into your soul as a suburbanite and discover what it means to live holy there.

Author Biography

Ashley Hales is a writer, speaker, pastor's wife, and mother to four. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and she lives in the southern California suburbs helping her husband plant a church, Resurrection Orange County. Her writing has been featured in Books and Culture, Think Christian, (in)courage, The Well, the Englewood Review of Books, and at The Mudroom.