Washington and Rome: Catholicism in American Culture

To an outside observer, the religious culture of the United States might seem astonishing. For German sociologist Michael Zöller, American Catholicism is more than that; it is a contradiction in terms.

With its historical consciousness, emphasis on institutionalized structures, and combination of skepticism and assurance of grace, Catholicism seems to embody the very opposite of the American cultural principle. Zöller here reexamines widely held notions about secularization and the role of r...