American Catholic History – Anne Klejment – Spring 2002

University of St. Thomas

CSMA 530

American Catholic History

Spring 2002

Prof. Anne Klejment

amklejment@stthomas.edu

418 JRC

651 962 5737

Office Hours: M and F: 11am-12:30pm; W 3:30-4:30pm and by appointment

Course Books (Available at UST Bookstore, unless noted):

Patrick Carey.  The Roman Catholics in America.

Steven Avella and Elizabeth McKeown, eds.  Public Voices: Catholics in American Context.

Keith Pecklers, SJ.  The Unread Vision: The Liturgical Movement in the United States of America: 1926-1955.

Dorothy Day.  The Long Loneliness.

Mary Christine Athans, BVM.  The Coughlin-Fahey Connection.  (Purchase in class, $10 cash or check payable to author)

Mark Massa, SJ.  Catholics and American Culture: Fulton Sheen, Dorothy Day, and the Notre Dame Football Team.

Patrick Allitt.  Catholic Intellectuals and Conservative Politics in America, 1950-1985.

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Course Description:

This course provides an advanced introduction to the social development of American Catholicism in historical context.  Social history includes expressions of belief and practice, institution building, human relationships of diverse American Catholics at different times and in different regions or racial/ethnic communities, and the place of the church in US society.  By historical context, we mean situating American Catholicism into the larger picture of the American past and present and relating the American church to the universal Catholic church of the same era.

Objectives:

To provide an intellectually rigorous and personally satisfying “advanced introduction” to the tools, sources, and issues of the history of American Catholicism.

To foster individual development of critical reading; understanding of historiography; historical research; methodologies; and the writing of analytical history with a strong narrative

To assist with the planning, completion, presentation, and evaluation of a research project relating to the history of twentieth century American Catholicism in consultation with the instructor and with the active assistance of seminar members

To gain an overview of key issues relating to the history of American Catholicism

To acquaint CSMA students with methodologies of history transferable to multidisciplinary learning and research situations

To satisfy the desire for personal intellectual and spiritual enrichment

Requirements:

Careful preparation of all assigned readings, regular attendance, and thoughtful participation

Weekly written reflections on the reading.  Your reflection might consider synthesizing readings on one specific topic of interest to you, raising critical questions relating to one or more of the readings, or exploring the historical context of one of the assigned documents from the Avella & McKeown anthology.  Occasionally, you will prepare a written report on a short reading assigned to you alone!   Reflections will be due weekly.  These should give us a point of departure for our discussions.  Each should be one single-spaced typed page.  40% of grade.

A research project, focusing on one well-defined aspect of twentieth century American Catholicism.  Your project could consist of one twenty-page paper on a topic (such as American Catholic periodicals and the encyclical “Casti Conubii,” the St. Joseph devotion for real estate sales, anticommunism as presented in one or two Catholic periodicals during a particular period of time, Archbishop Murray and issues of social justice during the depression, Marian devotions in one particular ethnic group or parish, Vatican II—the Catholic Bulletin’s and the Wanderer’s versions, etc.).  Topics and books must be approved by the instructor before the deadline on your assignment sheet.  You must meet at least once with the instructor for a progress report.  40% of grade.

Peer evaluation of seminar papers.

Formal presentation of seminar paper.

Class participation, peer evaluation, presentation, and self-evaluation constitutes the remaining 20% of the grade.

We will participate in a few extracurricular activities, including attendance at Sunday Mass at a selected parish, possibly St. Maron’s (Lebanese), St. Constantine’s (Ukrainian), Holy Family (Lebanese), St. Joseph Hien (Vietnamese) etc. to experience a little of the diversity of modern Catholic worship.  Fr. Marvin O’Connell will also hold an informal workshop or discussion with us around the time of his lecture in April.  Sr. Christine Athans will give a talk on her newly published history of the Saint Paul Seminary on the evening of 22 April.

Sessions:

INTRODUCTION

1/30

Preserving the History of American Catholicism

What’s Out There, What’s Not: A Guide for the Laity

Tentler, “On the Margins: The State of American Catholic History,” AQ 45(March 1993)

Marty, “The Catholic Ghettos and All the Other Ghettos,” CHR (April 1982)

Carey, “Bibliographic Essay”

I.  SYNTHESIS

2/6

The Mission and Republican Eras:

Diverse Cultures, One Faith, Many Expressions; the Anglo-Catholic Minority

Immigrant Church in Democratic America:

Growth, Ethnicity and Regionalism, and Backlash

Carey, chapters 1-3

Avella & McKeown, Docs. 1-9, 11-12, 23-24

VIDEO: Tekakwitha

2/13

The Ironies Within: National Catholic Presence and the Quest for Unity:

The Laity: Cultural Diversity and Americanization, The Bishops: Romanization and National Organization, The Agenda: Social Progressivism and Anticommunism

Carey, chapters 4-6

Massa, chapter 1

Avella & McKeown, Docs. 11, 12, 23-24

VIDEO: Hecker

2/20

Renewal in an Age of Upheaval:

Religious and Secular Roots of Change

Carey, chapter 7-8

Avella & McKeown, Docs. 61-62, 73-78

VIDEO: Vatican II

II.  THEMES AND INTERPRETATIONS

2/27

Devotionalism and Liturgical Renewal: Lay Spirituality before Vatican II

Pecklers, chapters 1-3 (to p 97)

(Reserve) Dolan, VII-IX

3/6

John A. Ryan’s Social Catholicism and Dorothy Day’s Conversion

Avella & McKeown, Docs. 25-35

Day, parts I and II

SLIDE SHOW: Dorothy Day

3/13

Anti-Catholicism in American Culture

Avella & McKeown, Docs. 39, 43-44

Massa,  “The New and Old Anti-Catholicism and the Analogical Imagination,” Theological Studies (2001)

(Reserve) Bellah and Greenspahn, chapters 3 and 4

3/20

Anti-Semitism in American Catholic Culture:

Father Charles Coughlin and Political Priesthood

Guest: M. Christine Athans, BVM

Athans, entire, but focus especially on chapter 5

VIDEO:  Coughlin

3/27

Midsemester Break

4/3

Spirituality in Transition: Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, and Daniel Berrigan

Day, part III

Massa, chapter 2

Pecklers, chapter 3 (p 97-149) and Conclusion

(Reserve) Berrigan, part II “Incarnation and Apostolate” and “Catholicism and the Intelligence”

(Reserve) Merton, chapters 1-4, 8-9, 16-17 (these are just a few pages in length)

4/10 TIME AND PLACE CHANGE

Fr. Marvin O’Connell: Seasons of Change: Social Catholicism in Minnesota

4/17

The Church Triumphant at Midcentury:

American Catholic Culture and Cold War Anticommunism

Massa, chapters 3-4

Allitt, chapters 1-2

Avella & McKeown, docs 63-66

4/24

American Catholicism in Transition: The Legacy of the Two Johns

The Traditional Spirituality of John XXIII and the Civil Religion of JFK

Massa, chapter 6

Allitt, chapter 3

Avella & McKeown, docs 105-106

(Reserve) Gleason, pages 115-132

VIDEO:  John XXIII

5/1

Seminar Presentations on Draft Essays

5/8

Renewal and Division:

Liturgical and Other Changes; Traditionalists, Liberals, Radicals, Charismatics, etc.

Massa, chapters 7-8

Allitt, chapters 4-5

Avella & McKeown, docs 98-104

5/15

Post Vatican II Catholics and their Church

Allitt, chapter 7 and Epilogue

Avella & McKeown, docs 78, 87-88, 108-109

(Reserve) Weaver & Appleby, tba

(Reserve) Weaver, tba