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.
Joseph A. Varacalli is Professor of Sociology and director for the Center of Catholic Studies at Nassau Community College-SUNY. He is the Cofounder of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists and was formerly Editor-in-Chief of the Catholic Social Science Review.
Table of Contents
Part 1 Introduction: "What Hath Social Science to Do with Catholicism?": Tertullian Revisited Chapter 2 Catholics and "Success" in the Contemporary American Republic: All That Glitters Is Not Gold Chapter 3 The Discrediting and Unraveling of the Contemporary American Public Order Chapter 4 The Pyrrhic Victory of Liberalism: The Exhaustion of an Inadequate Idea Chapter 5 The American Culture War and the Civil War within the Catholic Church of the United States Chapter 6 Not Enough: The Insufficiency of Evangelical Protestantism Chapter 7 Reality Denied: On the Obsolescence of the Concept of the Natural Law Chapter 8 Catholic Philosophical Vision, Catholic Historical Reality: The Need for a Catholic Plausibility Structure Chapter 9 Post-World War II American Catholicism: Anticipating the Catholic Moment Chapter 10 Secularization from Within: The Post-Vatican II Catholic Church in America Chapter 11 A Failure in Vision and Nerve: The Present Accommodation of "Americanist" Catholic Leadership Chapter 12 First Things First: Catholic Participation in Secular America Chapter 13 The Catholic Vision and American Populism: A Case of Elective Affinity? Chapter 14 John Paul II and the Restorationists: Picking Up the Pieces for a Real Catholic Moment Chapter 15 Linking Heaven and Earth: The Catholic Contribution to Culture, Institutional Life, and the Individual Chapter 16 Conclusion: Staying the Course
"I am very, very impressed with [this] work. I don't believe anybody has yet defined quite as clearly as Varacalli has, with supporting evidence, precisely why the apparently prosperous American Church and the huge number of Catholics here should prove to be so relatively "irrelevant" to American public life. Varacalli has succeeded in explaining and documenting why this is so." — Kenneth D. Whitehead
Anthony Haynor
In this lucidly written, physically attractive, intellectually lively, and politically provocative volume, author Joseph A. Varacalli offers his explanation as to why the 'bright promise' of Catholic social teaching hasn't been widely accepted and received favorably in the American Republic....Whether or not one agrees with Varacalli's analysis, he has put forth a serious intellectual, moral, and religious challenge to those who defend the present situation in the Catholic Church of the United States. — Anthony Haynor, Seton Hall University
Donald J. D'Elia
One will look in vain for a more trenchant analysis of why Catholic America, often ridden with dissent, has until now failed, in Professor Varacalli's words, to 'shape the American Republic in any significant way.' . . . "Bright Promise, Failed Community: Catholics and the American Public Order" is sociology at its best! — Donald J. D'Elia
Walter Nicgorski
I am genuinely impressed with the important matters [Varacalli] consider[s], critically important, I would say, for the Church and the American polity. — Walter Nicgorski
