American Catholicism Transformed

American Catholicism Transformed PDF Author: Joseph P. Chinnici
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197573029
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
Situating the church within the context of post-World War II globalization and the Cold War, American Catholicism Transformed draws on previously untapped archival sources to provide deep background to developments within the American Catholic Church in relationship to American society at large. Shaped by anti-communist sentiment and responsive to American cultural trends, the Catholic community adopted "strategies of domestic containment," stressing the close unity between the Church and the "American way of life." A focus on the unchanging character of God's law as expressed in social hierarchies of authority, race, and gender provided a public visage of unity and uniformity. However, the emphasis on American values mainstreamed into the community the political values of personal rights, equality, acceptance of the arms race, and muted the Church's inherited social vision. The result was a deep ambivalence over the forces of secularization. The Catholic community entered a transitional stage in which "those on the right" and "those on the left" battled for control of the Church's vision. International networking, reform of religious life among women, international congresses of the laity, the institutionalization of the liturgical movement, and the burgeoning civil right movement positioned the community to receive the Vatican Council in a distinctly American way. During the Second Vatican Council, the American bishops and theological experts gradually adopted the reforming currents of the world-wide Church. This convergence of international and national forces of renewal -- and resistance to them -- says Joseph Chinnici, will continue to shape the American Catholic community's identity in the twenty-first century.

American Catholicism Transformed

American Catholicism Transformed PDF Author: Joseph P. Chinnici
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197573029
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
Situating the church within the context of post-World War II globalization and the Cold War, American Catholicism Transformed draws on previously untapped archival sources to provide deep background to developments within the American Catholic Church in relationship to American society at large. Shaped by anti-communist sentiment and responsive to American cultural trends, the Catholic community adopted "strategies of domestic containment," stressing the close unity between the Church and the "American way of life." A focus on the unchanging character of God's law as expressed in social hierarchies of authority, race, and gender provided a public visage of unity and uniformity. However, the emphasis on American values mainstreamed into the community the political values of personal rights, equality, acceptance of the arms race, and muted the Church's inherited social vision. The result was a deep ambivalence over the forces of secularization. The Catholic community entered a transitional stage in which "those on the right" and "those on the left" battled for control of the Church's vision. International networking, reform of religious life among women, international congresses of the laity, the institutionalization of the liturgical movement, and the burgeoning civil right movement positioned the community to receive the Vatican Council in a distinctly American way. During the Second Vatican Council, the American bishops and theological experts gradually adopted the reforming currents of the world-wide Church. This convergence of international and national forces of renewal -- and resistance to them -- says Joseph Chinnici, will continue to shape the American Catholic community's identity in the twenty-first century.

In Search of an American Catholicism

In Search of an American Catholicism PDF Author: Jay P. Dolan
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195168853
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
For more than two hundred years American Catholics have struggled to reconcile their national and religious values. In this incisive and accessible account, distinguished Catholic historian Jay P. Dolan explores the way American Catholicism has taken its distinctive shape and follows how Catholics have met the challenges they have faced as New World followers of an Old World religion. Dolan argues that the ideals of democracy, and American culture in general, have deeply shaped Catholicism in the United States as far back as 1789, when the nation's first bishop was elected by the clergy (and the pope accepted their choice). Dolan looks at the tension between democratic values and Catholic doctrine from the conservative reaction after the fall of Napoleon to the impact of the Second Vatican Council. Furthermore, he explores grassroots devotional life, the struggle against nativism, the impact and collision of different immigrant groups, and the disputed issue of gender. Today Dolan writes, the tensions remain, as we see signs of a resurgent traditionalism in the church in response to the liberalizing trend launched by John XXIII, and also a resistance to the conservatism of John Paul II. In this lucid account, the unfinished story of Catholicism in America emerges clearly and compellingly, illuminating the inner life of the church and of the nation. In this lucid account, the unfinished story of Catholicism in America emerges clearly and compellingly, illuminating the inner life of the church and of the nation.

Latino Catholicism

Latino Catholicism PDF Author: Timothy Matovina
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069116357X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Discusses the growing population of Hispanic-Americans worshipping in the Catholic Church in the United States.

The American Catholic Revolution:How the Sixties Changed the Church Forever

The American Catholic Revolution:How the Sixties Changed the Church Forever PDF Author: Mark S. Massa, SJ
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199734122
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The Second Vatican Council enacted the most sweeping changes the Catholic Church had seen in centuries. In readable and compelling prose, Mark S. Massa tells the story of the culture war these changes ignited in the United States--a war that is still being waged today. The first stirrings of upheaval took place in the pews, where changes to the mass were felt immediately and viscerally by the faithful. Suddenly, one Sunday, the mass as they had always known it was very different, and so was the Church they had believed was timeless and unchanging. Skirmishes quickly broke out over the proper way to worship, with "liberals" welcoming change, "conservatives" resisting it. Soon, Catholics found themselves bitterly divided over everything from birth control to the authority of the Church itself. As he narrates these turbulent events, Massa takes us beyond the "liberal/conservative" stereotypes, offering new insights into the last fifty years of American Catholicism.

The Transformation of American Catholicism

The Transformation of American Catholicism PDF Author: Timothy I. Kelly
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
ISBN: 9780268033194
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Examines the Pittsburgh Diocese (1950s-1970s) to reveal how the Second Vatican Council fits within a longer history of changes already taking place in the Catholic Church.

The Structure of Theological Revolutions

The Structure of Theological Revolutions PDF Author: Mark S. Massa SJ
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190851414
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
On July 29, 1968, Pope Paul VI ended years of discussion and study by Catholic theologians and bishops by issuing an encyclical on human sexuality and birth control entitled Humanae Vitae: "On Human Life." That document, which declared that "each and every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life," lead to widespread dissent and division within the Church, particularly in the United States. The divide that Humanae Vitae opened up is still with us today. Mark Massa argues that American Catholics did not simply ignore and dissent from the encyclical's teachings on birth control, but that they also began to question the entire system of natural law theology that had undergirded Catholic thought since the days of Aquinas. Natural law is central to Catholic theology, as some of its most important teachings on issues such as birth control, marriage, and abortion rest on natural law arguments. Drawing inspiration from Thomas Kuhn's classic work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Massa argues that Humanae Vitae caused a paradigm shift in American Catholic thought, one that has had far-reaching repercussions. How can theology-the study of God, whose nature is imagined to be eternal and unchanging- change over time? This is the essential question that The Structure of Theological Revolutions sets out to answer. Massa makes the controversial claim that Roman Catholic teaching on a range of important issues is considerably more provisional and arbitrary than many Catholics think.

The American Catholic Experience

The American Catholic Experience PDF Author: Jay P. Dolan
Publisher: Image
ISBN: 0307553892
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 503

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Book Description
Catholicism has had a profound and lasting influence on the shape, the meaning, and the course of American history. Now, in the first book to reflect the new communal and social awakening which emerged from Vatican Council II, here is a vibrant and compelling history of the American Catholic experience—one that will surely become the standard volume for this decade, and decades to come. Spanning nearly five hundred years, the narrative eloquently describes the Catholic experience from the arrival of Columbus and the other European explorers to the present day. It sheds fascinating new light on the work of the first vanguard of missionaries, and on the religious struggles and tensions of the early settlers. We watch Catholicism as it spread across the New World, and see how it transformed—and was transformed by—the land and its people. We follow the evolution of the urban ethnic communities and learn about the vital contributions of the immigrant church to Catholicism. And finally, we share in the controversy of the modern church and the extraordinary changes in the Catholic consciousness as it comes to grips with such contemporary social and theological issues as war and peace and the arms race, materialism, birth control and abortion, social justice, civil rights, religious freedom, the ordination of women, and married clergy. The American Catholic Experience is not just the history of an institution, but a chronicle of the dreams and aspirations, the crises and faith, of a thriving, ever-evolving religious community. It provides a penetrating and deeply thoughtful look at an experience as diverse, as exciting, and as powerful as America itself.

Catholics in the Vatican II Era

Catholics in the Vatican II Era PDF Author: Kathleen Sprows Cummings
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107141168
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
For the first time, this volume takes a global and comparative approach to the lived local history of Vatican II.

Laity, American and Catholic

Laity, American and Catholic PDF Author: William V. D'Antonio
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9781556128233
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
The authors summarize existing data on Catholic laity's views toward the Church itself, as measured using nationwide polls. Based on a 1993 national survey, Laity: American and Catholic reports important trends in the attitudes of Catholic laity regarding church teachings, their participation in church ministry, and the Church's overall role in their lives.

The American Catholic Revolution

The American Catholic Revolution PDF Author: Mark S. Massa, S.J.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199781389
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
In the 1960s, the Second Vatican Council enacted the most sweeping changes the Catholic Church had seen in centuries. In readable and compelling prose, Mark S. Massa tells the story of the cultural war these changes ignited in the United States - a war that is still being waged today. Suddenly, one Sunday, the mass as the faithful had always known it was different, and so was the Church they had believed was timeless and unchanging. Once the Church opened the door to change, Massa argues, it could not be closed again. Skirmishes broke out over the proper way to worship. Soon, Catholics were bitterly divided over birth control, abortion, celibacy, female priests, and the authority of the Church itself. As he narrates these turbulent events, Massa takes us beyond stereotypes of liberals and conservatives, offering new insights into the last fifty years of American Catholicism.