Despite the constitutional division of church and state, the
impact of Catholics on American politics in the 1960s and 1970s has
been remarkable--as the names of the Kennedys, Eugene McCarthy,
Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, Peter Rodino, Thomas Eagleton, the Berrigan
brothers, and Cesar Chavez will attest. In this portrait of
American Catholicism, Mary Hanna intensely analyzes the political
influence of this enormously complex organization. She focuses on
the role of the Church in providing the means for an ethnic group
to challenge and contribute to the values of the larger
society.
Hanna recognizes that the Church is constantly striving to
maintain a balance between changing social conditions and the
principles of faith. In her analysis of the dynamics of this
balance, she asks, for example, why the Church has had such
influence on its members on the question of abortion, but has been
somewhat less effective on questions relating to minority welfare.
Interviews with working-class leaders in Catholic "ethnic"
communities provide a new understanding of the complexities of
Catholic feeling on these timely issues. Hanna's chapter on the
subtleties of the abortion issue, as interpreted by church leaders,
Catholic politicians, and the lay population, is a model of
scholarship.
This study applies the methods of quantification, survey
research, and interviewing to public policy, and yields unexpected
results. For example, despite Catholics' stereotyped image as
conservative and antiprogressive, Hanna shows that Catholic voters
are very liberal on the subject of government's role in solving
problems related to the general welfare-health care, the
environment, education, crime, drug addiction. She also finds
upward mobility in Catholics' education and especially their
income. This work combines data from national surveys with personal
interviews of clergymen and other Catholic public figures. Hanna's
comprehensiveness, documentation, and innovation make this a
searching analysis of contemporary American Catholicism.
General
Imprint: |
Harvard University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
May 2014 |
First published: |
October 2013 |
Authors: |
Mary T. Hanna
|
Dimensions: |
234 x 156 x 16mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Sewn / Cloth over boards
|
Pages: |
271 |
Edition: |
Reprint 2014 ed. |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-674-18265-3 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
Politics & government >
General
|
LSN: |
0-674-18265-0 |
Barcode: |
9780674182653 |
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