Catholic Culture in the USA: In and Out of Church

by John Portmann

Overview

This study of American Catholicism summarizes a widespread contemporary tendency to adapt traditional spirituality to a world of moral diversity, to hold onto some essential portions of religious experience in an increasingly secular world.
Catholic Culture in the USA articulates what is perhaps only implicit in other scholarship with regard to how theological teachings trickle down from the Vatican and influence decisions about food, marriage, sex, community celebrations, and medical care. John Portmann defends these Catholic dissidents and explores alternative expressions of Catholic devotion. Taking a holistic approach, the author indicates cultural change as resulting from interaction among individual rights assertions, grassroots mobilization, scholarly production and legislative innovation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441188922
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/10/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

John Portmann is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, USA.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Foreword Dennis O'Brien x

Preface xvii

Introduction 1

1 Who Are Cultural Catholics? 12

2 European Origins 31

3 Baptisms, Weddings, and Funerals 57

4 A Brief Sketch of Catholic Dissent in the United States 81

5 A Pope's Apology 113

6 What Would the Virgin Mary Do? 130

7 Family Romances 144

Postscript 163

Notes 169

Bibliography 189

Index 199

Editorial Reviews

'... creative and often thought-provoking.'

"The sociological approach to Roman Catholicism used to favor regular church attendance and doctrinal conformity as the two most relevant benchmarks of the alleged religious involvement of the faithful. Exploring the composite nebula of the "cultural Catholics", who claim to a Catholic identity without conforming themselves to the ecclesiastical standards, John Portmann's book offers a vivid and renewed overview of the internal plurality of Roman Catholicism, and enlarges the sociological approach to its normative system." - Professor Danièle Hervieu-Léger, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France, and author of Religion as a Chain of Memory
Catholic Herald

'An important avenue of inquiry. ... [Portman's] questions are excellent and his accommodating tone is admirable.' Catholic Herald

Reviewed in the Church Times.
Catholic News Service

From the Publisher