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American Catholic: The Politics of Faith During the Cold War - Hardcover | Diverse Reads

American Catholic: The Politics of Faith During the Cold War

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American Catholic places the rise of the United States' political conservatism in the context of ferment within the Roman Catholic Church. How did Roman Catholics shift from being perceived as un-American to emerging as the most vocal defenders of the United States as the standard bearer in world history for political liberty and economic prosperity? D. G. Hart charts the development of the complex relationship between Roman Catholicism and American conservatism, and shows how these two seemingly antagonistic ideological groups became intertwined in advancing a certain brand of domestic and international politics.

Contrary to the standard narrative, Roman Catholics were some of the most assertive political conservatives directly after World War II, and their brand of politics became one of the most influential means by which Roman Catholicism came to terms with American secular society. It did so precisely as bishops determined the church needed to update its teaching about its place in the modern world. Catholics grappled with political conservatism long before the supposed rightward turn at the time of the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.

Hart follows the course of political conservatism from John F. Kennedy, the first and only Roman Catholic president of the United States, to George W. Bush, and describes the evolution of the church and its influence on American politics. By tracing the roots of Roman Catholic politicism in American culture, Hart argues that Roman Catholicism's adaptation to the modern world, whether in the United States or worldwide, was as remarkable as its achievement remains uncertain. In the case of Roman Catholicism, the effects of religion on American politics and political conservatism are indisputable.

ISBN-13: 9781501700576

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Publication Date: 10-15-2020

Pages: 280

Product Dimensions: 6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

Age Range: 18 Years

Series: Religion and American Public Life

D. G. Hart is Associate Professor of History at Hillsdale College. He is the author of Damning Words and Calvinism. Follow him on Twitter @Oldlife.

What People are Saying About This

James McCartin

American Catholic explores in greater depth how the Catholic and political strands of history are intertwined, and I think it is especially important and notable that D.G. Hart, a historian who is not among the 'usual suspects' working on US Catholic history, takes on this task.

Sam Tanenhaus

The story of midcentury American political life is to a surprising extent the story—or stories—of a handful of brilliantly original Catholic writers and thinkers. They're all vibrantly present in D. G. Hart's important and illuminating book and so are the arguments, debates, and quarrels that continue to shape our country's clash of ideologies and faiths.

John T. McGreevy

D. G. Hart's American Catholic is a lucid assessment of how postwar conservative Catholic intellectuals reconciled loyalties to nation and church. Hart offers new insights into familiar figures and charts the disorienting effects of the last decade with aplomb.

Nicole Hemmer

D. G. Hart does something new in American Catholic: he takes theology seriously. Hart weaves a creative argument about Catholic conservatives, showing how, in moving the United States to the right, they helped liberalize the church—a compelling irony that deepens our understanding of the American right.

Table of Contents

Introduction: How Americanism Won
1. Belonging to an Ancient Church in a Modern Republic
2. Public Duty, Private Faith
3. Americanism for the Global Church
4. Liberal Catholics, American Conservatives
5. The Extremities of Defending Liberty
6. The Limits of Americanism
7. Americanism Revived
8. Americanism Redux
Conclusion: Freedom and Roman Catholicism in Postconciliar America