Remapping the history of Catholicism in the United States : essays from the U.S. Catholic historian

For more than thirty years, the __U.S. Catholic Historian__ has mapped the diverse terrain of American Catholicism. This collection of recent essays tells the story of Catholics previously underappreciated by historians: women, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and those on the frontier and borderlands. Timothy Matovina's opening essay sets the theme for the volume, encouraging a remapping of U.S.Catholic history to more widely encompass its various localities and peoples,especially the significance of non-European ethnic and racial groups and specifically the role of Latino Catholics. Jeanne Petit explores Catholic womanhood's strength and organizational zeal in the post-World War I era, noting the obstacles and successes of women's attempts to be recognized fully as American citizens and members of the Church. Anne Klejment weaves together the lives of Dorothy Day and Cesar Chavez to illustrate their use of nonviolence and "weapons of the spirit" to respond to societal injustice. Amanda Bresie provides a window into the life of Mother Katharine Drexel, noting the generosity of the millionaire heiress, but also her meticulous record keeping and close supervision of her funding of educational and evangelization efforts among Native and African Americans. Kristine Ashton Gunnell analyzes the ways in which the Daughters of Charity crossed cultural boundaries to offer charitable assistance to Mexican and Japanese communities in Los Angeles. Matthew Cressler explores the intersection of Black Power and distinctive African American-inspired liturgies, arguing that the liturgy became a site of struggle as black self-determination and nationalism impacted worship and black Catholic identity. Finally, Joseph Chinnici offers an important essay on re-envisioning post-conciliar U.S. Catholicism in its global context, offering a new approach to how we consider the American Catholic narrative and write its history. Together these path-breaking studies serve as a model for historians seeking to engage in the cartographic task of remapping the U.S. Catholic experience. For more than thirty years, the U.S. Catholic Historian has mapped the diverse terrain of American Catholicism. This collection of recent essays tells the story of Catholics previously underappreciated by historians: women, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and those on the frontier and borderlands.Timothy Matovina's opening essay sets the theme for the volume, encouraging a remapping of U.S. Catholic history to more widely encompass its various localities and peoples, especially the significance of non-European ethnic groups and the role of Catholics in the American Southwest. Jeanne Petit explores Catholic womanhood's strength and organizational zeal in the post-World War I era, noting the obstacles and successes of women's attempts to be recognized fully as American citizens and members of the Church. Anne Klejment weaves together the lives of Dorothy Day and Cesar Chavez to illustrate their use of nonviolence and “weapons of the spirit” to respond to societal injustice. Amanda Bresie provides a window into the life of Mother Katharine Drexel, noting the generosity of the millionaire heiress, but also her meticulous record keeping and close supervision of her funding of educational and evangelization e­orts among Native and African Americans. Kristine Ashton Gunnell analyzes the ways in which the Daughters of Charity crossed cultural boundaries to off­er charitable assistance to Mexican and Japanese communities in Los Angeles. Matthew Cressler explores the intersection of Black Power and distinctive African American-inspired liturgies, arguing that the liturgy became a site of struggle as black self-determination and nationalism impacted worship and black Catholic identity. Finally, Joseph Chinnici off­ers an important essay on re-envisioning post-conciliar U.S. Catholicism in its global context, off­ering a new approach to how we consider the American Catholic narrative and write its history.Together these path-breaking studies serve as a model for historians seeking to engage in the cartographic task of remapping the U.S. Catholic experience. Contents Preface / David J. Endres Remapping American Catholicism / Timothy Matovina “Organized Catholic Womanhood”: Suffrage, Citizenship and the National Council of Catholic Women / Jeanne Petit Mother Katharine Drexel’s Benevolent Empire: The Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions and the Education of Native Americans, 1885–1935 / Amanda Bresie The Daughters of Charity as Cultural Intermediaries: Women, Religion, and Race in Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles / Kristine Ashton Gunnell Dorothy Day and César Chávez: American Catholic Lives in Nonviolence / Anne Klejment Black Power, Vatican II, and the Emergence of Black Catholic Liturgies / Matthew J. Cressler The Cold War, the Council, and American Catholicism in a Global World / Joseph P. Chinnici, OFM "For more than thirty years, the quarterly journal U.S. Catholic historian has mapped the diverse terrain of American Catholicism. This collection of essays, including seven of the most popular and path-breaking contributions of recent years, tells the story of Catholics previously underappreciated by historians: women, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and those on the frontier and borderlands."--Publisher description