Catholicism in America

In keeping with the editorial conception of the series “Religious Life in America,” the aim of this book is to offer the reader “a rounded picture” of Catholicism (Catholics and their church) and its role in American society. Strictly speaking neither a history nor a theology, this book will take seriously the designation “religious life” and use a variety of disciplinary approaches such as history, cultural studies, sociology, and theology to get at lived Catholicism in the United States.

Like its aim, this book’s scope is also a function of the series’ parameters. Its thematic treatment of Catholic theology, worship, and activity in various other American cultural sites is set in an opening narrative of U.S. Catholic history treated from the double perspectives of derivative and indigenous, i.e., trans-Atlantic and Americanist. The opening tableau of American Catholic history will be integral to the thematic treatments that follow.