The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America

by James M. O'Toole

Overview

Shaken by the ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal, and challenged from within by social and theological division, Catholics in America are at a crossroads. But is today’s situation unique? And where will Catholicism go from here? With the belief that we understand our present by studying our past, James O’Toole offers a bold and panoramic history of the American Catholic laity. O’Toole tells the story of this ancient church from the perspective of ordinary Americans, the lay believers who have kept their faith despite persecution from without and clergy abuse from within. It is an epic tale, from the first settlements of Catholics in the colonies to the turmoil of the scandal-ridden present, and through the church’s many American incarnations in between. We see Catholics’ complex relationship to Rome and to their own American nation. O’Toole brings to life both the grand sweep of institutional change and the daily practice that sustained believers. The Faithful pays particular attention to the intricacies of prayer and ritual—the ways men and women have found to express their faith as Catholics over the centuries. With an intimate knowledge of the dilemmas and hopes of today’s church, O’Toole presents a new vision and offers a glimpse into the possible future of the church and its parishioners. Moving past the pulpit and into the pews, The Faithful is an unmatched look at the American Catholic laity. Today’s Catholics will find much to educate and inspire them in these pages, and non-Catholics will gain a newfound understanding of their religious brethren.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674033825
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	07/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	601 KB

About the Author

James M. O’Toole is Clough Millennium Professor of History, Boston College.

Table of Contents

Contents Introduction 1. The Priestless Church 2. The Church in the Democratic Republic 3. The Immigrant Church 4. The Church of Catholic Action 5. The Church of Vatican II 6. The Church in the Twenty-first Century Notes Acknowledgments Index

What People are Saying About This

O'Toolesurveys the lay Catholic experience in America with remarkable breadth and mastery. Lively and accessible, this book provides a valuable introduction to American Catholic history.

David O'Brien

The Faithful is a truly original and mature work that gives us a rich history of American Catholics. There is simply no comparable book. --(David O'Brien, Holy Cross)

Leslie Tentler

O'Toolesurveys the lay Catholic experience in America with remarkable breadth and mastery. Lively and accessible, this book provides a valuable introduction to American Catholic history.
— Leslie Tentler, Catholic University of America

Robert Orsi

An ambitious narrative history of American Catholicism, written with great historical range and attention to lived experience. It has profound contemporary resonance. This courageous book, unafraid to explore the story's darker moments, is destined to become the new standard text on American Catholicism. --(Robert Orsi, Northwestern University)

Robert Orsi

An ambitious narrative history of American Catholicism, written with great historical range and attention to lived experience. It has profound contemporary resonance. This courageous book, unafraid to explore the story's darker moments, is destined to become the new standard text on American Catholicism.
— Robert Orsi, Northwestern University

R. Scott Appleby

Solidly researched, engagingly told and insightfully interpreted, The Faithful is the first comprehensive history of lay Catholic prayer, politics and creative fidelity to church teaching, even in times of crisis such as the present. It could not come at a better time, as American Catholics struggle to reclaim a legacy of moral leadership and stalwart service to the nation.
— R. Scott Appleby, University of Notre Dame

Leslie Tentler

O'Toolesurveys the lay Catholic experience in America with remarkable breadth and mastery. Lively and accessible, this book provides a valuable introduction to American Catholic history. --(Leslie Tentler, Catholic University of America)

Editorial Reviews

Recent studies of the Roman Catholic Church in America have brought into focus the emergence of Catholics into mainstream culture and the colorful particularities of the faith in various parish neighborhoods. O'Toole, a historian at Boston College, follows this trend of telling the story "from below," but begins his narrative from the birth of the nation in the 1770s. For many, the biggest revelation in the book will be O'Toole's designation of the colonial church as "priestless." While that was not entirely the case-a handful of priests did serve the small number of Catholics who had settled here-many did not see a priest more than once a year. As Catholics today are aware, the church currently faces a similar priest shortage. For readers who are familiar with the church, the primary joy of this book will be found in checking their own experiences against those described by O'Toole. Still, the genial style of writing together with a plentiful amount of fascinating tidbits will keep all but the most jaded expert going. (Apr.)

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Publishers Weekly

Archivist-turned-historian O'Toole (Boston Coll.; Passing for White: Race, Religion, and the Healy Family, 1820-1920) deftly tells the history of lay Catholics in America. Beginning with the priestless church of the Colonial period, he goes on to explore the church in the democratic republic, the immigrant church, the church of Catholic Action, the church of Vatican II, and the church in the 21st century. Each chapter begins with a short biography of a lay Catholic of his or her time; the last chapter opens with a portrait of "Maria," O'Toole's projection of a typical modern-day Catholic. O'Toole does not shrink from treating the pedophilia crisis, but he does so from the perspective of an impassioned historian. In addition, he is careful to explain any term that might be unfamiliar. Less academic in style and format than Patrick W. Carey's The Roman Catholics and more accessible than Charles R. Morris's American Catholic, this is a worthy successor to James Hennesey's American Catholics and Jay P. Dolan's The American Catholic Experience, both classics. Highly recommended.
—Augustine J. Curley

Library Journal

Intermittently intriguing look at the development of the American Catholic church from the perspective of its laity. O'Toole (History/Boston Coll.; Habits of Devotion: Catholic Religious Practice in Twentieth-Century America, 2004, etc.) divides the Catholic history in America into six eras. In each case, he focuses on the laypersons who powered the work of the church and made up its ever-changing demographic. Starting with the "Priestless Church" of the nation's early decades, when parishioners had to make their way in both fledgling cities and the wilderness without much clerical leadership, the author then moves on to the "Church of the Democratic Republic," which tried to reconcile American egalitarianism with the church's hierarchical structure. Later in the 19th century came the "Immigrant Church," which struggled with accommodating rapid and often volatile changes in the national population. The 20th century saw the "Church of Catholic Action" followed by the "Church of Vatican II," eras which included social unrest and sea changes in the church itself. Finally, the author looks at the "Church in the Twenty-first Century" and its struggles with the clergy molestation scandal, a scarcity of priests and the continued shifting of demographics due to immigration. O'Toole's history, focusing especially on personal narratives, makes for captivating reading. But that same reliance upon individual accounts becomes somewhat problematic, as the author often seems to identify national trends based on scant information from primary sources. The book also fails to place American Catholicism within a global context. For instance, O'Toole describes the change in communion being administered inthe hand instead of on the tongue, which was practiced by many parishes in the mid 20th century. But was this new practice found in America only or was it part of a global trend?A history worth reading.

Kirkus Reviews

[O’Toole] relies on a wide range of source material, writes in vivid detail and, above all, pays a great deal of attention to religious practice and ritual. It is this last that distinguishes The Faithful from previously published histories of American Catholicism… He is certainly not the first to write Catholic history from the perspective of the people in the pews. But it is true that his narrative eschews, to a much greater extent than other surveys, expositions of ideological or political conflict among the church hierarchy. Instead, he frames his book in a manner designed to capture the myriad ways in which ordinary American Catholics have lived, prayed and practiced their faith… It is the Catholic faithful more broadly who stand to gain the most insight from reading this book… [It] deserves a wide readership.

Kathleen Cummings

[A] splendid new history of Catholics in the United States.

Rodger Van Allen

O’Toole surveys the lay Catholic experience in America with remarkable breadth and mastery. Lively and accessible, this book provides a valuable introduction to American Catholic history.

Leslie Tentler

An ambitious narrative history of American Catholicism, written with great historical range and attention to lived experience. It has profound contemporary resonance. This courageous book, unafraid to explore the story’s darker moments, is destined to become the new standard text on American Catholicism.

Robert Orsi

An intriguing book, brimming with wisdom. It studies the evolution of U.S. Catholicism by dividing it into a half-dozen historic segments, from the Colonial ‘priestless church’ to the muscular, immigrant-fed church a century ago, to the reformist, post–Vatican II church and beyond.

Boston Globe - Rich Barlow

Especially timely… This is not so much a history as, in this case, a penetrating, deftly worked summary of organizational and liturgical developments, formal and informal, in the American Catholic Church with emphasis on the role and influence of the laity.

Boston Globe - Katherine A. Powers

The Faithful is a truly original and mature work that gives us a rich history of American Catholics. There is simply no comparable book.

David O’Brien

O’Toole crams an array of stories, profiles and statistics into his book that will make it a welcome addition to the shelf of anyone interested in the country’s religious culture. His focus is on how the relationship between rank-and-file Catholics and the church has changed since the country’s colonial era… O’Toole’s prodigious research and engaging writing ensure that The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America will be the authoritative work on this subject for quite some time.

St. Petersburg Times - Claude R. Marx

Solidly researched, engagingly told and insightfully interpreted, The Faithful is the first comprehensive history of lay Catholic prayer, politics and creative fidelity to church teaching, even in times of crisis such as the present. It could not come at a better time, as American Catholics struggle to reclaim a legacy of moral leadership and stalwart service to the nation.

R. Scott Appleby

The Faithful is a truly original and mature work that gives us a rich history of American Catholics. There is simply no comparable book.

David O'Brien

[A] splendid new history of Catholics in the United States.
— Rodger Van Allen

Commonweal

[O'Toole] relies on a wide range of source material, writes in vivid detail and, above all, pays a great deal of attention to religious practice and ritual. It is this last that distinguishes The Faithful from previously published histories of American Catholicism...He is certainly not the first to write Catholic history from the perspective of the people in the pews. But it is true that his narrative eschews, to a much greater extent than other surveys, expositions of ideological or political conflict among the church hierarchy. Instead, he frames his book in a manner designed to capture the myriad ways in which ordinary American Catholics have lived, prayed and practiced their faith...It is the Catholic faithful more broadly who stand to gain the most insight from reading this book...[It] deserves a wide readership.
— Kathleen Cummings

America

O'Toole crams an array of stories, profiles and statistics into his book that will make it a welcome addition to the shelf of anyone interested in the country's religious culture. His focus is on how the relationship between rank-and-file Catholics and the church has changed since the country's colonial era...O'Toole's prodigious research and engaging writing ensure that The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America will be the authoritative work on this subject for quite some time.
— Claude R. Marx

St. Petersburg Times

An intriguing book, brimming with wisdom. It studies the evolution of U.S. Catholicism by dividing it into a half-dozen historic segments, from the Colonial "priestless church" to the muscular, immigrant-fed church a century ago, to the reformist, post-Vatican II church and beyond.
— Rich Barlow

Boston Globe