cover image In Search of an American Catholicism: A History of Religion and Culture in Tension

In Search of an American Catholicism: A History of Religion and Culture in Tension

Jay P. Dolan. Oxford University Press, $30 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-19-506926-6

Dolan, an emeritus professor at Notre Dame whose book The American Catholic Experience has become a standard work, here addresses the dialectic inherent in being simultaneously Catholic and American. In prose that is accessible, even basic, Dolan explores how American Catholics have swung between ideals of democratization (as when the nation's first bishop was elected, not appointed, in 1789) and Romanization (as when Catholics in the mid-19th century retreated into their own growing infrastructure of parochial schools and networks). Today, he says, both of these ideals are still present as some American Catholics embrace neo-traditionalism as a reaction against Vatican II and others feel that the current pope is too conservative. Throughout, Dolan teases out themes of nationality, gender, democracy and the Americanization of doctrine. His attention to the evolution of grassroots devotion is especially welcome, since too many books about American Catholicism concentrate on doctrine to the exclusion of popular piety.