Expectation of Christ’s imminent return produced drab evangelical architecture

Evidence

The belief in Christ’s imminent return transformed American evangelicalism in ways ranging from trivial to profound. At the former end of that spectrum, premillennialism is responsible for some colossally bad architecture: If Jesus is going to return at any moment, why bother with design or ornamentation? Cinder block will do just fine—the triumph of function over form. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 56

Categorization

• CANDY: Fun fact: premillennialism explains cinder-block church design. Light, conversational material.
• XREF: connects to: Belief in Christ’s imminent return absolved evangelicals of duty to reform society — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 55; Expecting Christ’s imminent return made evangelical architecture deliberately functionalist — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 57

Related

• Expecting Christ’s imminent return made evangelical architecture deliberately functionalist (similarity 0.97)
• Belief in Christ’s imminent return absolved evangelicals of duty to reform society (similarity 0.84)