This volume in the American Religious Experience series chronicles the history and present situation of the Catholic Church and the American Catholic subculture in the United States. Catholics have had a long history in America, and they have often had conflicting demands - should they remain loyal to the authority of the pope in Rome, or should they become more accommodating to American culture and society? The Catholic Experience in America combines historical, sociological, philosophical, and theological and religious scholarship to provide the reader with an overview of the general trends of American Catholic history, without over-simplifying the complex nature of that history. The Catholic Experience in America examines many different aspects of what it's like to be a Catholic in United States today: Discusses the diversity of Catholicism within the Church, including the issues of race, ethnicity, and gender BLAddresses major turning points in American Catholic history, and how they have affected the everyday experience of American Catholics, such as immigration and nativism, the separation of church and state, and the election of John Kennedy as president. BLExamines how the Church has handled such contemporary issues as homosexuality, birth control and abortion, and religious education Provides a historical analysis of the rise and fall of a Catholic subculture capable of providing a Catholic religious identity in America The volume includes several appendices to further the readers understanding of the Catholic experience in America, including brief discussions of key documents and Church organizations, a glossary of terms, and basic demographic and statistical information.

Sociology and Catholic Social Teaching: Contemporary Theory and Research contains essays by key scholars in the territory where Catholic social thought and secular sociology meet, and offers a much needed alternative to the relativism and individualism that so often characterize social scientific analysis today. Contributors to this volume argue that Catholic social teaching, as articulated so powerfully today in recent papal encyclicals and major summations such as the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, offers a powerful moral framework for addressing today s pressing social problems. This is especially true since many of its tenets find solid support in social scientific research on the nature of the person and the workings of culture and social institutions. Sponsored by the Society of Catholic Social Scientists, and including work by sociologists from both the Society and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, this volume is offered in the spirit of Pope John Paul II s exhortation to draw from contemporary social science whatever can help the Church better understand contemporary social issues and trends and thus better serve humanity. Specific articles address such topics as the Church as a virtual nation in the international arena; changing cultural norms regarding deviance; the historical and contemporary relationship between Catholicism and mainstream academic sociology; empirical support for a natural law perspective on family relations; the social psychology of happiness and moral behavior among emerging adults; the sociology of knowledge from a distinctively Catholic perspective; and how the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity can be used to analyze and evaluate the functioning of institutions like the family, education and the state. Each author also offers some autobiographical reflections on how they relate sociology and their life of Faith. This anthology will interest scholars in both sociology and Catholic social thought, as well as advanced undergraduate and graduate students in these areas."

The two original volumes of the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy were published in 2007. Those two volumes included 848 entries from nearly 300 contributors and included a wide range of entries in three general categories: entries exploring Catholic social thought at a theoretical level, entries reflecting the learning of various social science and humanistic disciplines as this learning relates to Catholic social thought, and entries examining specific social policy questions. This third, supplemental volume continues the approach of the original two. First, the volume includes entries that explore Catholic social thought at its broadest, most theoretical level; for example, an entry on Pope Benedict s important social encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Second, the volume includes entries that discuss recent social science research that bears on issues important to Catholic social thought; for example, an entry on the social costs of pornography draws on recent research on the topic. Third, the volume includes entries discussing specific issues of social policy that have become increasingly important in recent years; for example, an entry on embryo adoption and/or rescue. This third volume contains 202 entirely new entries from over 100 contributors.The contributors include distinguished scholars such as Father Robert John Araujo, S.J. (Loyola University of Chicago), Father Kevin L. Flannery, S.J. (Gregorian University), Robert P. George (Princeton University), William E. May (John Paul Institute and the Culture of Life Foundation), D. Q. McInerny (Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary), and Michael Novak (Ave Maria University). The work will appeal to anyone who is looking for a clear and accurate introduction to Catholic social thought."

In Bright Promise, Failed Community, respected Catholic sociologist Joseph Varacalli describes how and why Catholic America has essentially failed to shape the American Republic in any significant way. American society has never experienced a 'Catholic moment' the closest it came was during the immediate post-World War II era nor is it now close to approximating one. Varacalli identifies as the cause of the current situation the 'failed community' of Catholic America: an ineffective and dissent-ridden set of organizational arrangements that has not succeeded in adequately communicating the social doctrine of the Church to Catholic Americans or to the key idea-generating sectors of American life. The 'bright promise' of Catholic America lies in the long and still developing tradition of social Catholicism. With a revitalized, orthodox, sophisticated community to serve as the carrier of Catholic social doctrine, Varacalli sees trends of thought that would propose viable alternatives to philosophies and ideologies that currently dominate the American public sphere-ones that would thus have a formidable impact on American society."