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Overview
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, including: the diversity of Catholicism within the Church, including the issues of race, ethnicity, and gender; 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; how the Church has handled such contemporary issues as homosexuality, birth control and abortion, and religious education; and 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.
Synopsis
Primarily for advanced high school, beginning college, and seminary students, Varacalli (sociology and Catholic studies, State U. of New York-Nassau Community College) introduces and overviews the history and contemporary situation of what is now the largest religious group in the US. After a review of the 2,000 years of Catholic history, and a chronological survey of it in the US, he discusses Catholic social thought, social geography, controversies and crises, and possible futures. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Editorials
From the Publisher
"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."
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Touchstone
"[A] thorough, accurate, and mostly unbiased account of the history of the Catholic Church in the United States….[F]or anyone, Catholic or non-Catholic, wanting to know more about the history and beliefs of the Church."
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Catholic Education
"Readers interested in the changing fortunes of the Catholic Church in America will find Varacalli's work of great interest. He has managed to produce a study that is both scholarly and accessible to a general audience."
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Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly
" [B]racing and insightful… Readers interested in the changing fortunes of the Catholic Church in America will find Varacalli's work of great interest. He has managed to produce a study that is both scholarly and accessible to a general audience."
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Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly