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"There's a dramatic religious variety here. It's really unlike any other place in the country," says Darrell L. Bock, professor of spiritual development and culture at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). "You've got a microcosm of evangelicalism here in a lot of ways—the big megachurches, the average-size churches. But whereas most communities have one or two places like that, Dallas has tons."

Dallas's religious colleges and universities are almost as numerous as its churches. DTS is probably the most famous of the cluster of schools in the area. Renowned for its commitment to dispensational theology, the nondenominational DTS has trained countless thousands of students for ministry since its founding in 1924. Criswell College, organized in 1970 by First Baptist, has also prepared churchloads of fundamentalist preachers and missionaries. Dallas Baptist University, a 4,300-student school that serves both conservative and moderate factions of the SBC, is revered locally for its huge adult-degree program. Christ for the Nations Institute is a huge missionary school with a charismatic emphasis. In Fort Worth, 40 miles west of Dallas, there's Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, which is both the SBC's and the world's largest seminary.

And conservative evangelicals are not the only Christians taking up educational real estate. Southern Methodist University, which is home to the Perkins School of Theology (a bastion of moderate and liberal Christianity), is a prominent presence. The University of Dallas announces itself as "The Catholic University for Independent Thinkers." And Texas Christian University in Forth Worth is a 6,000-student school affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Add to this the scores of parachurch and broadcast ministries—in addition to Evans and Jakes, Chuck Swindoll, James Robison, and June Hunt also operate nationally known ministries out of Dallas—and you have a place that cranks out religion like Silicon Valley does microchips.

"There's a smorgasbord of religious options here," says Michael Williams, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Dallas Baptist University. "I think people who are natives of this area don't recognize how different this is compared with other places in the U.S."

Dallas, it has been said, is located in "the buckle of the Bible belt." From its earliest days in the 1840s, when the first Anglo pioneers rolled into the region from places like the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, the city has been defined by the Christian heritage of its residents.

Texas as a whole has traditionally been dominated by at least four types of Christians—Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, and Churches of Christ. The names of the local hospitals, parks, and schools across the region bear witness to their enduring legacy. Still, in a state bursting with religious activity, Dallas sticks out.

Religious heritage accounts for some of Dallas's spiritual vibrancy, but the size and volume of religion here is also rooted in the ethos of the town. Consider this: According to some reports, Dallas has more churches per capita than any other city in the United States, but it also has more shopping malls.

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May 21 2002, Vol. 46, No. 6