The Catholic Experience in America

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Joseph A. Varacalli

Book Code: GR2583

ISBN: 0-313-32583-9

ISBN-13: 978-0-313-32583-0

DOI:

364 pages, photos

Greenwood Press

Publication: 12/30/2005

List Price: $57.95 (UK Sterling Price: £31.95)

Availability: In Stock

Media Type: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Series Title: The American Religious Experience

Reviews:

Joseph A. Varacalli's The Catholic Experience in America is....[a]n affirmative look at the social history of the Church, yet it does not back away from some of the challenges that the Church has faced-including the clergy abuse crisis of the past decade, the growing secularization of her colleges and universities, and the negative response of many progressive Catholics to her teachings on birth control, abortion, and homosexuality....While Varacalli, a founder of the Society for Catholic Scientists, is steadfast in his loyal support for the magisterium, he is also fair in presenting the not-so-loyal opposition.
—Catholic Social Science Review 2007
The Catholic Experience in America offers a broad and helpful description of the church in America as a social institution. Varacalli, a sociologist, notes in particular the ongoing tension between loyalty to the nation and the development and decline of a "Catholic plausibility structure," the institutions that socialize Catholics into willing acceptance of their church's teachings.
—Touchstone May 2007
[O]ffers a multifaceted look at Catholic life in the United States....Varacalli knows well the legitimate diversity within American Catholicism. His treatment accounts for a long history of intra-ecclesial competition which this condition helped produce. His discussion of religious communities and devotions also accounts for the historical vitality of Catholic tradition in so many different times and settings; one community or devotional practice will emphasize or embody a particularly compelling insight from the rich Catholic treasury; another will highlight some insight, and so on. The end product is both an infinite complexity and a sociologically sensitive and efficient creature that can survive in widely and divergent contexts.
—The Chesterton Review 2007
[V]aracalli is to be commended for striving to be as objective as possible in presenting "the Catholic experience in America"....In eight appendices the author presents much useful information about the Catholic Church in America. This is followed by an extensive bibliography on all things Catholic in the USA during the past 300 years or so. If you have the opportunity, it would be good to recommend to your local public library that it acquire this book for those who want to do research on the Catholic Church in America.
—Homiletic & Pastoral Review October 2006
[A]n informed and fair-minded sketch both of the Catholic faith and of the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. The approach is strongly sociological with a good deal of sensitivity to cultural analysis of this institution and its membership. The prose is clear and concise, free of an initiate's jargon: theories and terms are always explained in accessible language. explained
—American Catholic Studies 2006
[T]he Catholic Experience in America considers the many facets of life as a Catholic in modern America. From different faces of Catholicism within the American church to issues of race and gender, chapters provide historical and social background. The Catholic Experience in America provides thorough coverage of events which have affected the church and its religious foundations.
—Midwest Book Review - Internet Bookwatch October 2006
[C]ontext is everything. To know the recent historical context of the grave problems faced by Catholics in the U.S. is to enable ourselves to "make all things new" as the Scriptures tell us and to ensure that the Catholic Church in the U.S. develops the true vision of Vatican II and not the mediocre liberal caricature that for too long has been the default position in too many places. Varacalli's book will help you know that context.
—Catholic Analysis (blog) September 20, 2006
Varacalli guides the reader effortlessly though the pertinent literature. He does not break much new ground here but that is not the point of this useful book, which describes the Catholic experience in America from its origins to the present in light of the findings of the most important scholarly research.
—The American Conservative September 25, 2006
[S]erves not only to make us all aware of the high (and low) points of Catholic history in America but also serves as a fundamental introduction to the Catholic Church for non-Catholics and for the many Catholics who have received little or no effective catechesis, especially about the basic structure of the Catholic Church. As such, the book, while being unabashedly a product of academic professionalism, is also capable of an evangelization effect by introducing the Catholic Church accurately to students. This evangelization effect is possible because the author embraces the official teachings of the Church, instead of presenting readers with a tendentious mirage based on a liberal imagination, as we have in so many other works on the Catholic Church. His book is an example for all academics of combining straightforward professional work without compromising the truth of Catholic belief.
—Catholic Analysis August 20, 2006
Drawing upon the best contemporary and objective scholarship, Varacalli's The Catholic Experience traces the historical fortunes of the Catholic Church in the United States from its first Anglo-beginnings in Colonial Maryland
—Lay Witness September/October 2006

Description: This volume in the American Religious Experience series chronicles the history and present situation of the Catholic Church and the American Catholic subculture in the United States. Catholics have had a long history in America, and they have often had conflicting demands - should they remain loyal to the authority of the pope in Rome, or should they become more accommodating to American culture and society? The Catholic Experience in America combines historical, sociological, philosophical, and theological and religious scholarship to provide the reader with an overview of the general trends of American Catholic history, without over-simplifying the complex nature of that history. The Catholic Experience in America examines many different aspects of what it's like to be a Catholic in United States today:

Discusses the diversity of Catholicism within the Church, including the issues of race, ethnicity, and gender

Addresses major turning points in American Catholic history, and how they have affected the everyday experience of American Catholics, such as immigration and nativism, the separation of church and state, and the election of John Kennedy as president.

Examines how the Church has handled such contemporary issues as homosexuality, birth control and abortion, and religious education

Provides a historical analysis of the rise and fall of a Catholic subculture capable of providing a Catholic religious identity in America
The volume includes several appendices to further the readers understanding of the Catholic experience in America, including brief discussions of key documents and Church organizations, a glossary of terms, and basic demographic and statistical information.

LC Card Number: 2005019206

LCC Class: BX1406

Dewey Class: 282


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